Shortest evening of the year

Today I was stretching modern technology to its limits. NASA may boast about being able to put a rover down on the surface of Mars, but that's peanuts trying to juggle an old smart phone, my current phone and a kindle fire while trying to play games online/cook supper/get drunk.

Joining me on this evening was Ian, Martin and Andy. We were expecting Adam T but early on we got an email from him saying he'd just woken up and he had to eat. 

We began with Marrakech, and we initially stayed strictly to the three right hand columns, sending poor Assam round in circles. Martin was so taken with this new "variant" that he was disappointed when I broke out from this area and set off across the rest of the board. 

This evening's notable moment was when Andy made a carpet several squares upwards, with two squares either side at the bottom. This prompted Martin to remark that he didn't want to land on Andy's giant cock.

In the end it was between me and Martin. The final player was Andy who tried to cover up bits of carpet so as to end the game in a draw, but didn't take into account the tie breaker, so I took the win by a single coin.

Andrew 50
Martin 50
Ian 28
Andy 24

Next up we played Kingdom Builder. Something for my kindle fire to really get its teeth into and it did okay, unless I tried full screen mode, when it wouldn't render the whole board properly.  Martin built a sprawling spider of a village whose spindly legs connected castles to villages for points. Ian, though, ended up mostly stuck in one corner, unable to make any connections at all.

Martin 60
Andy 57
Andrew 53
Ian 30

Finally, we chose Buttons as our nightcap. It's a fun game, I think. I'm still to crack the winning strategy, though. Martin opted out in a winning position meaning Ian had to push his luck, just as he'd had to do last time. He couldn't manage it and Martin took a slender win by just 98 points.

Martin 106
Andy 8
Ian 6
Andrew 5

And so we were done. One of the shortest games nights on records, not even reaching ten o’clock, but still a lot of fun.

Our autoplay has been updated

Tuesday games this week kicked off at 8 with six gamers in attendance, Katy, Martin, Sam, Ian, Andy and myself. Our first game was For Sale, and what an odd game it was. Sam picked up the 1 since"you know where you are with a one," and then he picked up an 8, which had an igloo on it. After all, he quipped, "you know where you are with an igloo… the north pole." He also got the 2, making him the most locationally certain player that For Sale has ever seen.

In the buying round, Martin made happy noises about how well everything was going. His confidence was entirely justified, and there was a three-way tie for third.

Martin 51
Ian 47
Sam 44 + cash
Katy 44 + less cash
Andy 44 + much less cash
Andrew 39

Then we split into two groups. Katy, Martin and Sam went off to play something whose name escapes me, but looked like this.

After that, I’m told they played Masked Men and it ended:

Katy 5
Martin 5
Sam -2

Meanwhile, Ian, Andy and I played Buttons. Ian got a rules explanation from Andy, even though it had been me that suggested it. Thanks Andy. I then went bust in round one, you know, just to show Ian what it looked like. 

Ian looked like he was going for two rows of six when I got lucky with a dice roll and was able to Opt Out in a winning position. The other two had to push their luck or admit defeat. Ian failed in his attempt but Andy was more fortunate. As we saw the result, I was remind of this game’s comedic lop-sided scoring system,

Andrew 108
Andy 108
Ian 8

After this Ian said he was in the mood for something light, and Andy suggested Sapiens. It may be light to him, but I found there were enough rules for them to blur together in a sticky mash.  There were lots of icons and something about food. The situation wasn’t helped by me having to quickly dash downstairs mid-game and open a tin of sardines for my girlfriend. 

Andy 31
Ian 24
Andrew 20

After this, Katy and Martin had joined our Google Hangout after Sam had left for the night and we ended with No Thanks, this time exploring the possibilities of the automatic pass system. This little option allows you to keep adding coins until a certain value is reached, and when it does this, it does it extremely quickly. This makes the player look very impatient and petulant. Martin also liked the message “your autoplay has been updated” that appears onscreen when you use it. As for the game, I was winning until the last card, which was 32 and Martin milked it for as much as he dared.

Martin 11
Andrew 24
Katy 25
Andy 39
Ian 49

And so that was it. Thanks everyone. See you next Tuesday.

Keys are good! Keys are good!

 I arrived online and found Martin, Andy and Ian patiently waiting for me, having completed a game of No Thanks. When I checked the result, I couldn’t stop myself from pointing out how shit those scores were.

Ian 63

Martin 64

Andy 76

Then the four of us decided on a new game: Abyss. Nothing to do with James Cameron externalising a failed marriage into a CGI-laden blockbuster. No, instead this is a get-stuff-to-get-stuff kind of game. The basic mechanism seems to be (to me at least) that the more choice you ask for, the greater the options for your opponents to pick up something out of the stuff you leave behind. Cards you don’t buy end up in a pile that someone can take for free, if you ask to see three “locations” (end of game bonuses which you can get when you have three keys, hence the blog title) and those other two you don’t chose will become available for everyone. That kind of thing.

Martin talked us through the rules, which was made a lot easier when Andy worked out how to allow Martin to make his cursor visible, and his tinkerbell-esque green cursor darting around brought back memories of playingcards.io.

Halfway through the game Katy arrived, commented on how quiet we were and then left. And it was. Ian opined that the game would be better in real life to general agreement. Not to say it wasn’t bad, but a little pedestrian. Part of the problem is having to click “pass” on something you obviously don’t want and the game does allow you to set up automatic passing for cards of a certain colour/value but none of us felt confident enough to do that.

In the end, Martin bought up the seventh lord and triggered the end game.

Martin 76

Andy 75

Andrew 65

Ian 63

After this pretty substantial experience, we ended with Marrakech, with the “dick” variant where you leave the meeple pointing in the direction you want your opponent to go. This worked badly for Ian who found that Andy was repeatedly able to set him up so that he had no chance of escape. I felt a bit bad because I seemed to let Andy get into those positions, but didn’t admit to that at the time. I’m admitting to it now, though. Sorry Ian.

Andy 68

Martin 52

Andrew 30

Ian 12

And then we were done. Thanks all, it was fun.

A French Connection

 This week we began our weekly meeting at eight o'clock with four of us eager to play No Thanks, which had recently debuted on BGA. Katy, Martin, Ian and I began with Katy unsure of the rules and Ian completely silent. Ian and I both had an uninterrupted run of cards by the end, while Katy and Martin ended with a more piecemeal selection.

Ian 9

Andrew 15

Martin 35

Katy 79

Katy insisted we play again, now that she remembered how to play. But her familiarity with the game didn't make a huge difference.

Ian 5

Martin 46

Andrew 57

Katy 67

It seemed like his enforced absence from our hilarious banter helped Ian focus. We'll, that's what I thought until he finally fixed his microphone and apologized for being so distracted.

Sam and Andy had joined us during the second game and then the six of us tried Paris Connection, another new game on BGA. 

This game involves building coloured railways, five links at a time, from Paris to other French cities, which score points for that particular railway line. Then, as railways become more valuable, you can swap the coloured trains in your reserve, which count as shares and, therefore, points. It's very easy and it quickly became a game of dick moves as we deliberately wasted our opponent's trains buy building links on non-scoring rural hexes. 

It was pretty swift and mean spirited. I did wonder if this was in the spirit of the game, considering that one of the end-game criteria is if someone reaches Marseille in the very south and we mostly built blocks of railways in the north. Still, it was fun. Not for Andy though, who said it wasn't his cup of tea.

Martin 103

Katy 78

Ian 75

Sam 71

Andrew 48

Andy 48

Rather than split up, we stayed as a sextet. After a little discussion we settled on Downforce with the odds betting rules variant on, which gives you bigger returns for betting on cards further back.

After a pretty orderly start, we managed to stop all the cars just before the first line which triggers the betting, effectively giving us a second starting grid. Nice. In the end, Katy almost overtook the winning driver, Martin, by betting on him throughout. Sam ended the game ruefully admitting that the three cars he'd bet on were the three left on the track after first, second and third had been decided.

Martin $28m

Katy $26m

Andy $25m

Ian $9m

Andrew -$2m

Sam -$5m

At this point Ian and Sam departed and the final four embarked on a game of Marrakech, the evil variant whereby you leave the carpet merchant pointing in the direction you want the next player to go. Katy was upset by how often I picked on her and I defended myself by pointing out that I couldn't really pick on anyone else.

It ended with my only win of the evening. Clearly this is a game of hidden strategies and not just roll-and-hope.

Andrew 51

Andy 39

Katy 38

Martin 28

And so we were done. Thanks all and see you next Tuesday.

The Enigmatic Mr Bate

 With no Andrew online, blogging duties fell to me (Sam) and it was nice to see the return of both Joe and Adam H, neither of whom had been seen - at least by me - in some time. When I logged on at five to eight, no games had been played, but with 20 minutes before the scheduled arrival of Andy, the six of us - Ian, Katy and Martin also present - kicked things off with a game of For Sale. 

This was notable mainly for the gloomy ambience around Joe's google feed and the gloomy predictions Katy and I gave about our perennial poor performances. Adam - audibly muffled, but consciously clinical - stayed mostly quiet as he deftly picked up his first win of the evening, as Martin picked up a surprising fifth place:

Adam 50
Sam 44
Ian 43 + cash
Katy 43
Joe 41
Martin 37

For Sale was so quick we began another game, anticipating Andy's arrival might be somewhat staggered. This proved to be true as no sooner had 7 Wonders began than he appeared online, only to vanish again mysteriously. What does he do in these moments? Is he cackling evilly in his subterranean lair, or banging his head against a wall in frustration? Perhaps we'll never know. Although Martin did ask rhetorically if he worked for British Telecom. Meanwhile Adam stayed true to form, ousting the regular 7 Wonders winner Ian from his perch. He still got second though:

Adam 65

Ian 57

Martin 54

Sam 52

Joe 47

Katy 35

Katy was so exasperated she threatened to read the rules. 

Martin then suggested Draftosaurus, and everyone volunteered. It didn't play seven though so after Andy, Ian, Adam and I had watched him teach it to Joe and Katy, we scurried off to play by ourselves. It's a really simple game where the dinosaurs you draft score in different ways depending on where they end up in your park - but where you can place them depends on the roll of a die, and what dinosaurs you've placed already. Simple enough that we played it twice:

Ian 41

Adam 30

Sam 29

Andy 25

then 

Ian 34

Sam 33

Ian 32

Andy 28

Whilst the others played it no less than four times, twice on the summer board and twice in winter. Not sure what the difference is? - maybe once they're in your park, they freeze to death. 

While they were passing digital representations of miniature wooden stegosauruses around the table, we played Kingdomino. Fun, but it does get a bit stodgy with four, seemingly doubling it's length from the last time I played with three. I also managed to pick the wrong domino on my final turn, depriving myself of over ten points in the process. Not that it would have helped me catch Adam (or Ian, in fact, as I think he would have taken the domino I took for more points)

Adam 67

Ian 59

Sam 53

Andy 47

The others having completed their Draftosaurus odyssey (and played something else?) we came together for a rousing game of 6Nimmt.  This was something of a classic, in no small part to the behaviour of Andy's internet connection, which collapsed with comedic frequency. We briefly wondered whether it would be best for everyone to kick him out of the game, and then fretted that he was listening in on Googlemeet and would be upset, or perhaps murderously vengeful. But frankly it was almost as entertaining as the game itself, watching Andy 'thinking' about his turn, and speculating whether he was about to make a decision or simply vanish into the ether. 

For a while it was neck and neck between Andy and I on the scores, but then I picked up a horrid row of bullheads. In the late game though Andy collapsed too, bringing Katy and Adam back into the equation. It was a brutal game with everyone picking up bruises, and in the end both Ian and Martin hit minus points. The winner was Katy!

Katy 28

Adam 23

Sam 20

Andy 19

Joe 3

Ian -5

Martin -9

Ian and I then took our leave, whilst the others seemed to be on the verge of playing something else... thanks all, lots of fun and sorry I took no pictures at all. Here's one of our mad cat Charlie, who likes pretending to bury his food bowl.  

Pizza the action

This week's games night consisted of five hardy gamers. The four hardiest arrived on time for a five player game of Marrakech. Except this time they played the variant where you rotate Assam at the end of your turn in an attempt to screw your opponent. 

Andy defied luck a couple of times to fall neatly land on a bare square surrounded by enemy carpets. When he won the game, he made sure to remind everyone that it was a game of skill.

Andy 49

Ian 41

Katy 32

Martin 29

I had arrived mid game and now we were five we decided on a game of Voodoo Prince on playingcards.io. This game of winning three tricks at just the right moment was one of Martin's earliest creations on the site and he had to quickly add a deal button to save us from pawing at the deck of cards at the start of every round like a bunch of hungry hippos.

In rounds one and two both Katy and I won a trick while playing the seemingly perfectly safe Green 6. In round three we were all on two tricks. Andy, the leader, went out first, confident that his advantage was safe. And he was right.

Andy 28

Katy 26

Andrew 24

Ian 21

Martin 16

Then we stayed on playingcards for a rousing game of Mamma Mia. Andy went through the first round having forgot about being able to use cards from your hand in the pizza cooking round. Despite this, he staged a remarkable comeback, ending in what we thought was a joint first until Martin remembered the tie breaker. 

Martin 5 recipes and more cards in hand

Andy 5

Ian 3

Andrew 3

Katy 3

Next we returned to BGA for a game of For Sale. It was a close game and although I came last, I didn't think I'd done that badly, but I still came last.

Martin 55

Ian 52

Katy 50

Andy 48

Andrew 47

Ian set off to bed and the remaining four of us played Buttons, a brand new game to me and one that I didn't really understand until the second round. The idea is to place five stars in a row and you get these stars by placing your buttons on other buttons of the same colour and you place your buttons according to the roll of a diminishing number of dice. It's an abstract puzzle game, basically. Anyone hoping for a Eurogame based on the button industry will be sorely disappointed. 

I approve of the game giving a one hundred point bonus to the first player to place their fifth star, giving the final scores a comedic lopsided look to them.

Andy 108

Martin 10

Katy 6

Andrew 4

I think I'd like to try it again. It seemed like a good game once I was pointing in the right direction.

And then we all peeled our faces off the internet and set off to bed. Thanks all. 

Happy New Lockdown

I arrived at 8.00 to find a game of For Sale already in full swing featuring Andy, Sam, Martin, Katy and Ian. I watched in a semi distracted state, but I paid enough attention to see Sam get hit twice when everyone else went big, leaving his biggish cards looking rather small. At the end of the game, he noted that his low cards had scored better than his high ones.

Martin 57

Katy 53

Andy 50

Sam 47

Ian 41

Then the six of us played 6nimmt. I started brilliantly, but then I collapsed faster than my hopes of visiting Japan this Spring. At the start of round three, it was Ian versus Martin for top spot. Ian, too, had a run of bad luck but while mine sent me into fifth, he ended the game still in second. Martin's reward was a message from BGA saying something about a 6nimmt bang bang. Just what he's always wanted.

Martin 37

Ian 17

Andy 12

Sam 11

Andrew -10

Katy -15

Then we split up. Andy, Martin and Katy played a new crazy trick taker from Japan called Cat in a Box. Ian, Sam and I chose a more eurogamey affair: Kingdomino. My lack of form continued into this game as I built further out from the castle, thinking it was a 7x7 grid. It wasn't since it was a three player game, as I was reminded.

Sam 84

Ian 64

Andrew 39

Then we banged out a quick 7 Wonders, and Sam crushed us all, while I took consolation in having not made any stupid mistakes this time. I still didn’t win, though.

Sam 66

Andrew 49

Ian 40

Sam left and Ian and I rejoined the other three just in time to watch the impenetrable ending of Cat in a Box. I understood nothing except for Andy feeling he'd messed up and Katy insisting that the game was "rubbish" as she couldn't place a card and lost four points as a consequence.

Martin 13

Andy 8

Katy 6

Finally we were together as a quintet, so we played Texas Showdown. Officially, the game lasts until someone hits the 12 trick mark, but after a lengthy pause while Andy lost the internet and then saw his laptop freeze up. We played for one more hand  and ended with…

Martin 3

Andy 4

Katy 5

Ian 6

Andrew 6

And so with that, we bade each other farewell and went our separate ways. See you all soon!