Kiss and Tell

We lost Andrew but gained Andy M, had no Adam T but Adam H stepped in as a late responder. The venue floated around before settling at mine, but the first half hour or so was mainly chat. Ian told a story about sleeping in mulch - or 'a ditch' as Katy liked to interpret it - and then he told it again to late arrivals Joe and Andy. Martin was due about 9pm, but after a diversion into whether conking out drunk is the same as going to sleep and another diversion on Venn diagrams, we finally played a game. It was Viva Pamplona!

Katy suggested that the orange safe spaces should actually be safe, as one pays to be there, and we thought Why not. So you can't be pushed while in an orange space, but neither can you collect courage points if the bull attacks (nor lose them if you're behind him, which had ramifications later). Good thematic sense! I regretted not bunching my runners together in my opening turn as no less than three others immediately took advantage, shoving me all over the place, like a rank amateur bullied by seasoned pros. We all fell behind the bull - but some of us hid safely in the safe spaces. Then we realised that we could keep a runner in a safe space all the way to the end of the game and not lose any more courage points - which we did; Katy, Adam and I lingering way back on the course like cowardly custards.

But Adam's rolling didn't favour him and he found himself forced to run, way way back behind the bull, who only paid out 2 or 3 times the entire race! Very few of us made it to the arena, and Andy cleaned up on his debut, shrugging off everyone teasing him about cheating.

Andy 39
Katy 35

Sam 25
Joe 17
Adam 9
Ian 5

Joe and Katy then played Sea Salt and Paper while they waited for Martin, whilst I attempted to explain Terra Nova to Adam and Andy. I'm not sure what happened in SSaP, I missed the end. I also handed guidance duties over to Ian when I had to go away on bedtime patrol upstairs. 

For a reasonably simple game of build stuff to get in each other's way with a side order of tactical scoring, it does take a while to explain. Ian did a good job though, and we set off into the good hexagonal night, starting around the time Martin arrived and began setting up his latest Knizia offering, Aristocracy. I missed almost everything about this other the occasional expletive and Katy's happy air of satisfaction versus the boy's chagrin, but did manage to snap a photo:

At our end of the table Andy started well, but as we proceeded Ian's eye for scoring opportunities saw him streak ahead, establishing a solid lead. Terra Nova can be fruitful if you pay attention to the round-by-round bonuses, and try and time your actions on the board to them. Adam frustrated himself when he built a palace and a town earlier than was ideal, even though it catapulted him up the track: delaying would have been more productive in the long run. 

Despite building the largest network (12 point bonus!) after connecting two towns, I was struggling to stay anywhere near Ian. In fact I was struggling to keep up with Andy -(bonus points for towns!) and Adam (-being Adam). But it was Ian's day: he scored a shedload of points in round five as well and wrapped things up convincingly, seemingly unaffected - maybe even blessed - by his night in the mulch.

Ian 74
Adam and Sam 59 each
Andy 53 

Aristocracy finished as well, with Katy even more convincing:

Katy 66

Martin 48

Joe 47

And Martin telling Joe he should design his own version of the game. I've no idea what it's about, although the cover suggests a psychopaths-with-delusions-of-grandeur kind of vibe. Not something I would ever accuse the players of, of course.

EDIT: This morning Martin had to remind me that he Joe and Katy also played Spots around this point as we finished Terra Nova! Martin won. 

Ian took his leave triumphantly, whilst the rest of us debated what to finish with before settling on Wavelength. Memories are a little hazy now but I can vouch that at some point before/during the game, Joe revealed he had kissed Kylie Minogue "on the lips" (-because she's a kisser on greeting) having made some illustrations for her website back in the last century. "I've known you ten years, and this is the first time you mention this?" Martin cried. Joe confessed he'd been waiting for the right moment. There was also talk of foamy nipples and it was hard to tell what was the greatest emotion in the room - Joe's nostalgia, or his audience's astonishment. 

But we had business to attend to, and that was arguing about how much a grain of sand looks like a person (not at all? a little bit? a lot?) This was Joe's clue and he and Katy, post-reveal, debated what more looks like a person between a grain of sand and 'air'. "Air can look like a person!" Joe insisted, waving his heads around in what I supposed was meant to suggest that air can look like a person. I regretted my clue of snooker for mental activity/physical activity, and changed to to darts after they had set the dial. If nothing else this should prove to everyone that Andy is not the only one who can cheat. I waved away protests for not other reason than I wanted to. 

It didn't help much: we actually did rather badly overall, triggering no extra cards and only scoring ten points total. "You should have listened to me" Martin said, as the only person (other than me) who truly understands how physical darts can be. Lots of fun! Thanks everyone...

Glassy-eyed

It was a sparsely-attended GNN again this week, with various members out of town, unavailable, or poorly (get well soon Adam). When I stumbled through Laura's back door a little after half-seven, there was just Laura and Martin sitting there, like shepherds with flocks misplaced. With Katy on her way as the fourth and final participant, we just had time for a quick bash at Hit. Fortune favoured me in the briefest of warm-ups, but it was pretty close:

Sam 83
Laura 70
Martin 29

Then Katy arrived, with biscuits, and we swiftly set up Mille Fiori. Martin was denied the opening salvo of the last time we played as things began slightly more cagily, with Laura and I getting in the way of his key strategy. I regularly found my cards offered little for me, but - as was noted later - I was sitting c**t-side of Martin. Katy professed some mild bamboozlement, but whatever was troubling her clearly lifted, as she eased away up the scoretrack like sportscar pulling away from three streetsweepers. Martin's voice pitch ran the gamut between disdain and despair, as Laura's percentage of professed understanding of Mille Fiori dropped from 80% down to 50, even as she shuffled into second place.

Katy in fact was so far ahead that it became a fight for second place, as Martin and I (green/red) recovered to catch Laura (orange). In the picture below you can just about make out Katy's valedictory fingers moving her own marker (purple) even further away from us on the fare side of the board. 

And the game concluded with Katy scoring a whopping 262 points, dwarfing previous high scores by regular Fiorians Martin and Joe Berger. She was sitting doofus-side of me though; maybe I should have played a more dickish game. In the post mortem, Martin realised Katy had concentrated her efforts on one side of the board only, ignoring keys and pyramids (or whatever they are). 

However she did it, it was a score for the ages.

Katy 262

Sam 230

Laura 214

Martin 198

Katy began making going-home noises, but we managed to coax another game out of her before she left, promising that Viva Pamplona would be less than half an hour. I didn't time it, but I think that was more or less the case. Everyone seemed to roll high at first, and found themselves too far ahead of the bull - except Laura, who took a cosy bovine strategy and found herself the chief beneficiary of the attacks, surging into a points lead. 

But if there's one thing GNNers don't like, it's a clear points leader, and Laura found herself the target of repeat pushing as jealous bull-runners ganged up on her. Even so, she was probably still decently placed for a possible win - until the bull sped up at the end, hurtling around the final corner to leave all of us licking our wounds and counting minus points. 

Sam 38

Katy 30

Martin 29

Laura 21

Brutal stuff. Katy then left, with plans for early-morning swims in glacial waters, and we changed gears somewhat with a revisit to Quirky Circuits, the pick-up-and-deliver game with an engine powered by The Mind-style table-reading and guesswork. Tasked with guiding our bee around the garden delivering pollen, we screwed up quickly as slight game-fade combined with engineered confusion caused misunderstandings. 

But with time - or battery power - running low, we finished the task by the skin of our teeth - and moved on to Spots, which Laura had never played. I made a dice dog while Martin explained the rules.

Then we jumped in to the dice-rolling fiesta. I think we all went bust, Laura at my hands - one action allowed me to increase the value of dice in her yard - and Martin most spectacularly, as he went from the verge of three complete dogs to a trio of crestfallen mutts. Meanwhile, I expanded my kennels...

After 15 minutes, only Laura had banked a single dog. But Martin changed all that by auto-banking three of them, and then repeating the same trick shortly after. 

Martin wins!

We felt we had one more game in us and, though Laura professed a hesitation to play a word game, mine and Martin's enthusiasm (-sorry Laura) for So Clover ended up trumping the alternatives.

But if Laura's hesitation was performance anxiety, it was misplaced. Her clover was our sole success, with Movember a great clue for Beard/Time and Patisserie giving us Dessert/Group. Only Fire for Pig/Lava gave us pause... In contrast, Martin and I struggled, even though I felt Mugtree was a decent clue for Cup/Forest and he was appalled that Laura and I settled on the Forbidden/Border combo for his clue of Rim. Sorry Martin - it's just not like you to pass up that kind of literary opportunity. 

So, a fairly paltry score of 12/18, but a nice way to end the evening all the same. Thanks to our host, Laura, and hope to see you all next week!

That sinking feeling

On a train with cack wifi - will add pics this evening

Laura was our host this week, and with Andrew a late withdrawal the blogging reverted to my (Sam's) sweaty hands.

Joe kindly gave me a lift over - despite Laura and I being practically neighbours, it was a relief to the foot. After some breaking-and-entering shenanigans, we found the kitchen replete with hairy men, and Laura. Katy was due a bit later, and Andy could only stay until 9, so there was a bit of boardgame jiggerypokery (BGJP) as we debated options, before Martin, Andy and Gareth played Longboards and Laura, Ian, Joe and I settled on Heckmeck (also known as Pickonimo, AKA the Hammy game)

Laura had child-related distractions, and I had bad luck/decisions, so in the early running it looked like Ian v Joe. Then Laura and I struck back, but not that effectively, and though I stole a tile from Ian Joe's stash was insurmountable. 

Joe 10
Sam 7
Ian 4
Laura 2

They were still playing Longboards so Laura introduced us to Roll For It, the game of dice-rolling to claim cards. Initially it seemed underwhelming, as each turn is a single roll of the dice and choosing where to allot them, if at all, to hopefully claim cards if you're the first person to complete the card demands. 

But as the game continued it got faster and funnier with Katy - who arrived as we started - desperate for six 2's as the rest of us fought it out over another card. As we turned from perplexed to engaged, Longboards finished...

Gareth 41
Martin 39
Andy 33

..and they started playing HIT, which I didn't get any photos of. We were too busy chucking dice and shrieking by then. Eventually Ian claimed the win (22) followed by me (17), Katy (15) Laura on 12 and Joe back on a paltry 5 points. He would have some serious vengeance however, later in the evening. Meantime Gareth absolutely rinsed Andy and Martin at Hit:

Gareth 144
Martin 77
Andy 67

Andy's pumpkin hour was looming but we thought we could squeeze in a quick game of Viva Pamplona! After some inevitable rules-clarifications, we were off! 

Andy appeared to be the early front-runner with his strategy of staying ahead of the bull and grouping runners together worked well: he was rarely pushable and therefore (this is the rule I missed Saturday) you couldn't squeeze points out of him (when you push a runner, the owner gives you a point or two). I did okay out of the first two scoring rounds, but as the bull rampaged past the halfway point I fell behind and kept rolling low dice, stuck behind a pile of fucking tomatoes. Gareth was taking a lot of pushing around at the back too, but staged a mini-recovery. I needed the bull - now invisible to me beyond a mound of vegetables - to not move, but it bundled it's way in to the arena and ended the game. Surprisingly Andy didn't win - it was the quiet man Joe!

Joe 43
Andy 37
Martin 30
Gareth 18
Sam 17

At the other end of the table, they finished Forbidden Island around the same time. Katy announced proudly they sank the island, but won anyway. So distracted was I by the Running of the Bulls that I hadn't witnessed any of this, so hopefully we'll get a mini-epic in the comments. 

Andy had to go, so the four remaining Bull Runners set up Mille Fiori, a game I recalled being relatively straightforward (apart from the boats) but felt bamboozled by when on his very first go, Martin took three turns and scored about 30 points as the rest of us watched in horror. I stared at the boards, stared at my cards, and questioned the wisdom of agreeing to play it.

But wily Joe has been here before. He has a rock solid record with Mille Fiori and as the game played out over the next 45mins or so he shrewdly pegged Martin back, pulling off a dramatic move every time Martin surged away again. We had our fleeting moments but otherwise Gareth and I were in a fight for third. The ending couldn't have been more dramatic, as Joe finally bounded ahead to Martin's panicked cries. But on the final go, he pulled out a double turn, moved his ship and pushed past Joe Berger for the win!

Martin 225
Joe 224
Sam 209
Gareth 174

Katy Laura and Ian, meanwhile, had played Marrakech not once, but twice: I think the second time they did the evil variant. Katy won the first (then Laura, then Ian) and Ian was maxi-evil for the second, trailed by Laura and then Katy in third. 

I had a big day the next day today and my foot was complaining a bit already so I hobbled off, aided by Gareth who also needed to get home. The others stayed on for a crack at So Clover, and pulled off a maximum-pointer! Go GNN. 

The smell of bull

Saturday night. After a day of entertaining nine 13-year-olds (-little Joe's birthday party), what I should probably have done was go to bed. But I wanted some me-time and what better what to spend it than with other people. Specifically, in this case, Ian and Adam H, who arrived at 7.30pm. I had the Great Zimbabwe set up and waiting for them, and proceeded to explain the rules. Every time I go through them the game seems a few degrees easier, although I still had to reference the book twice. 

But essentially it's build and raise - literally - monuments for the win, with the caveat that to do so you need craftspeople, and having craftspeople raises your victory point requirement (VR): it begins at 20, and in theory at least could remain there throughout the game, if your opponents give you the freedom to play using their craftspeople instead. I thought Adam might have bitten off more than he could chew when his VR hit 31, but he combined his craftspeople, specialist and God - both of which give advantages but also push up your VR - to utterly tank Ian and I, hitting something like 38points as we lagged in the late teens. 

Adam admitted he enjoyed himself. I complained aloud about Adam winning. Ian remained silent. 

At this point however, Laura arrived and we blasted through Viva Pamplona!, the somewhat dubiously-themed (in terms of animal welfare) game where you partake in the Running of the Bulls in Spain.

On your turn you roll the two dice and move (or not; the arrow result lets you advance 0-6 spaces) two of your runners. After everyone's done so, a card is flipped, and the bull moves too: often 1,2 or 3 spaces. Occasionally a little faster:

Your goal is to try and remain as close to the bull as possible, so close you can smell his animal scent. If the card flip reveals a scoring card then the bull doesn't move and the runners score: 3points for being on the same spot as the bull, 2pts for just ahead of it and 1pt for two spaces ahead. All runners behind the bull lose points!

Orange spaces cost you a point when you stop there, and there's a double-space full of tomatoes that you need to fully pass, or you'll slip back. If you arrive on a space and your runners outnumber another player there, you can push them back (or forward) a single space. 

This continues until the bull arrives in the arena. Any runners who beat the bull there receive points - as late as possible is better than earlier - but being behind the bull at this stage costs you points, of course. Ian found his bad luck and continuously rolling high worked ultimately in his favour. As we clustered around him on the final corner, he suddenly sped up and gambolled into the arena, leaving everyone behind him! But Ian was the least far behind by some margin, and picked up a win. 

We followed that with Kingdomino Origins, where I missed the drama of the scorecount as I had to go out and collect Joe as the hour hit 10pm. Despite the time though, Laura wanted to revisit Quantum, and Ian and I needed no encouragement. Adam gained a refresher and off we went...

I was first to go and having gotten a cube down, took a two-action bonus card to ready myself for a second. Then I spotted I could get a third cube down on my third turn, and as a result I found myself on the receiving end of unwanted attention (and commentary) from everyone else. My ships were blasted off the board, but thanks to my Tyrannical power, I pushed my dominance up to six twice to get my final two cubes down for the win. As Adam pointed out, going first doesn't harm your chances in Quantum at all, but I was pretty pleased with my win all the same, as Ian and I agreed Quantum remains a top ten game for us. 

Another top night, thanks all!