Fun lovin' Kribbelners

This week saw the well-oiled machine of GNN execute a pin-point 180 degree turn as initial host, Adam, had to hand over the duties to Sam at the last minute. Well, at the last couple of hours or so, but you get the point.

This left Sam fretting as the change in venue sparked off a number of late cancellations. Did this mean he wasn't popular? But in the end the exodus wasn't as big as he'd first thought and eight of us were in attendance tonight.

We started as a four: me, Sam, Ian and Joe. We began with Animals On Board, joking that just setting the game up would set off the doorbell. It did, and it was Martin.

Animals was replaced by Abluxxen. Early on, Sam asked if a hand full of different numbers was bad. Martin confirmed that it was.

The game ebbed and flowed, with Ian surprising us all by putting down a trick with three jokers in it. That was quickly abluxxed by Martin, if I remember right, which might have been the key move.

Martin 21
Sam 11
Joe 11
Andrew 5
Ian 5

By now, Adam, Katy and (after his cameo last week) Steve had arrived. The eight of us split into two groups of four. I pointed out Ponzi Scheme in Joe's bag, and a triumvirate of eager players volunteered themselves. I'd been keen to try it, so I happily joined them.

The other four went for The Networks. The game of schedule planning for a cable TV station. Or something. I understood very little since, from where I sat it was a long way away and upside down.

Ponzi Scheme, though, was much nearer. And the right way up. Unfortunately, I didn't understand it either. The rules are simple but the gameplay can be very opaque. Trying to work out a value for industry tiles in the trade round is a bit like licking your finger and holding it in the air. Not much to go on.

Joe stated he just wanted to stay solvent until the end, since that had never happened before. Katy bought industry tiles with glee, insisting I take a photo when she had three of three types.

Martin had loads of tiles and then, the next time I looked, he only had a few. Possibly due to the large number of "bear markets" that were triggered, meaning we have to lose a tile.

But Katy couldn't sustain that level of tile ownership and I felt less than inclined to try and extend my game any longer than necessary, so we ended up failing simultaneously. Martin won, despite Katy buying a tile off him to try and get Joe to win, but Martin's had a huge reserve of cash which got him four points. It was enough to give Martin another win.

Martin 8
Joe 4
Katy and Andrew BUST!

I found it all a bit dull. It was as if I was playing a game of Mornington Crescent, were people ostensibly follow some rules, and then there's a big reaction at something, the joke being that nothing has actually happened. That's exactly how it felt. Can't see me playing again. Pity, but there you go.

The Networks was still underway, so we brought out Polterfass. Clearly not my night for bluffing, mind-reading type games.

Surprising final round, though, with Katy and Martin poised to win. Katy, the customer, had 72. Martin, the barkeep, had 70. Katy only had to bid three and hope for a return, and then she'd win. But she bid zero, expecting Martin to be a mean bartender and not roll again, hoping to take advantage of Joe or my greed. She was half right. Martin didn't roll again, leaving eight pints to share. But Joe and I bid only one! No one went bust and Katy rued her choice. It was enough to give Martin another win.

Martin 76
Katy 72
Joe 50
Andrew 18

The Networks was still being played. In fact, by now, they were all standing up and checking the rule book. Serious stuff.

We went for Kribbeln, the game where Martin cocks a snook at Lady Fate and gets away with it. We all said his second Krib of 34 was a mistake, but then he pulled at 35 out of the bag in the later stages while the rest of us struggled in the high twenties and low thirties. It was enough to give Martin another win. (I should probably just have that sentence assigned to one of the F-keys on my keyboard. It would save a lot of time.)

Martin 25
Katy 19
Joe 17
Andrew 17

Finally, The Networks ended and we could clear the table (leaving behind one purple cube that no one could identify the source of). The game ended:

Adam 253
Sam 251
Steve 247
Ian 227

The eight of us played a rousing game of Pairs. Well, not really. My game slump continued, even in victory. I was on 14 points when I managed to fluke a first place, getting me eight points and pushing me past the 21-point mark. A huge anti-climax: I hadn’t even realised I was close to winning. The other notable event was Adam deciding to stick after he'd only been dealt one card (got him five points, though).

Andrew 22
Katy 15
Joe 14
Martin 13
Ian 11
Sam 11
Adam 10
Steve 8

Then the Eastonites left en masse, leaving the rest of us for one last game. Since I’d had such a poor evening, they let me choose the final game and I went for Unearth. But even then, I failed to get very far.

Sam 28
Joe 21
Katy 17
Andrew 16

Not a great night for me but I’ll write this off as an aberration. There’s always the weekend!

Hello AP my old friend

Saturday, and whilst the boys watched Pee Wee's Big Holiday, I talked Ian and Chris through the rules of Shogun. Andrew joined us - he and I had both played Shogun and its predecessor Wallenstein, but in the dim and distant past, with regular ass-whuppings at the hands of Anja, Adam, Steve, and Dan Clamp as I recall. But although it's a real brain burner - the post title comes from Ian invoking Art Garfunkel - the rules aren't actually terribly complex, and we set about populating feudal Japan forthwith. (Andrew here, just to add a little historical something: the names were the old names for Japan's regions, click here to see Chris' favourites Bichu and Bingo in all their historically accurate glory!)

Like Wallenstein, Shogun plays through two 'years' of the country, and in three seasons of each year you choose which of ten actions to assign to which area you control - or hope to control, if some Daimyo type hasn't nabbed it off you. Some actions allow you to strengthen, or confiscate money or rice from the local populace - good for building or feeding, but bad for popularity - too much confiscation leads to revolt.

Is this farmer revolting or raving?

Some other actions allow you to build buildings - theatres, temples or castles - and only two of the ten actually let you do what everyone is really wanting to do, which is attack.

Me(black), Chris (yellow) and Ian (blue) fancy our chances in Kozuke

I had what looked like a strong starting position, with several areas clustered close together. But sat in the middle of them was Ian, with five armies. He and Chris also managed to establish some mini-strongholds in the easier-to-defend areas of the board, whilst Andrew and I were more central. As the opening year played out, I realised I was doing what I'd always done previously, which was playing too conservatively, anticipating attack instead of expanding. So I tried to drive Ian out of my territory, only for his paltry single army to defeat the incoming four!

Ian surrounded by Sam

Andrew I seem to recall did spread himself a bit more, but suffered at the hands of Chris. Come the mid-game scoring at the 'winter' of the first year, he and Ian were miles in front, whilst Andrew and I languished far behind them. It had turned into a battle for first and a battle for third.

Unfortunately for Ian, his money ran out and in the final season of the final year his options were minimal. Chris and Andrew both took areas from him, whilst I finally broke the pattern of consolidation and managed to spread myself a bit around the board - enough to nab third, whilst Chris surged far enough ahead to see off Ian, who despite his worries had still scored substantially for all his buildings.

The final board

Chris 40
Ian 35
Sam 29
Andrew 27

Post game photos of people taking photos!

Whew! It was now three and three-quarter hours since we'd sat down to play, but as that meant it was only 10.45, we were all up for another game, and played Unearth: the game of digging up ruins and collecting stones. It was, Andrew said, "the ideal game to play after Shogun" as on your turn all you do is roll a die. You then place it on a Ruin and hope that when the ruin's value is reached by all the dice present, yours is the highest - claim the ruin, collect sets of ruins, score points. But if your dice roll is low (a one, two or three) you take a stone, and build with it. If you build a stone circle you can place a Wonder in it for points at the end of the game. Get dumped from a Ruin and you get a Delve card, which gives you some little fillip during play.

Stan and I had played the day before and thought it just ok, but it came into its own with four - lots of room for screwage and pushing people around - a Cosmic Run with added interaction really.

Andrew and I tied on 26 points, but Ian took the win with 27!

Ian 27
Andrew/Sam 26
Chris 21

A nice filler to end the evening after a totally brutal Shogun!