Gregory Peck's Bicycle

We had the tricky number of five gamers assembled last night: Joe, Ian, Katy and Martin joined myself at the spotty tablecloth. After pursuing the alcove of joy Martin and I brought in a small stack of games that suited a quintet, and - just as Joe arrived - we kicked off with Cross Clues. 

It was the usual blend of connection and confusion, and though we did pretty well - 22/25 on both attempts - there were still minor goofs, not least my clue of blue for heavy/dragon, neglecting to notice that blue went rather well, flag-wise, with red and white. With five of us, there were several moments where a grid location was proposed and someone would heavily demur, betraying the fact that that was the card in their hand. We speculated on solutions to this. Silence? A soft moan whilst touching your nose? Everything seemed to be like a flashing red light to highly-tuned Cross Cluers such as ourselves. 

Regardless, with that double warm-up under our belts, we moved on to the evening's main course. It's sat on my shelf for about two years since getting it in a trade, so from that perspective it was nice to break out Hoity Toity, which Martin felt he recalled well enough that we could tackle it. 

Designed by Klaus Teuber of Catan fame, this actually predates the wood-for-sheep innuendo generator by five years, and retrospectively we did decide that it showed its age a little. In Hoity Toity we are upper class twits trying to outdo each other by means of just Having Stuff, the more valuable the better. Ancient Chinese face masks, 1920's Belgium adverts for cheese, ornate ceramic smoking pipes - you name it. We get this stuff and then exhibit it for points, and points push us up the track around the outside of the board. But whilst that makes Hoity Toity a race, from a distance, close up it's a series of bids and bluffs and table-reads. 

Each round players first decide - secretly - whether they'll go to the Auction House to (in theory) try and get more valuables and grow their collection, or to the Castle to (in theory) Exhibit their collection, for points. The destination cards are all revealed first, and then everyone secretly chooses what they'll get up to at the locations in question. 

The auction house gets resolved first, with everyone who went their revealing their second card to show their intent. If they're bidding, then the highest bidder gets a valuable of their choice from the two available. If they played their thief, then they are - potentially - stealing the highest bidding card (the bidder still gets their valuable). Or if they played their Detective, they catch any Thieves, whether they stole anything or not. <<CORRECTION: detectives can only be sent to castles, see below>> So bidders increase their collection size, thieves get money, and detectives get points for throwing thieves in prison, from where they will return to the owner later. 

The castle happens next. If players played an Exhibit card, they exhibit their collection, which must have a sequence - a mix of sets and runs, so ABBCDD would be legitimate - and the biggest collection, with ties broken by oldest item, scores points and moves up the track. Second-biggest also scores. But here too, exhibited items can be stolen by Thieves and Thieves can be caught by Detectives. In both locations, Thieves with nothing to steal (or more than one thief!) or Detectives with no-one to catch all do nothing. 

What with some quirky scoring systems, it made for a funny but occasionally frustrating game, where playing the 'wrong' card is essentially a wasted turn, and you can very easily run out of money because successful bids in the auction that aren't stolen get removed from the game, shrinking the already haphazard economy. We all enjoyed it in parts, but felt too that it should have lasted half an hour rather than the hour+ it took. Despite my having no cash at all for the second part of the game, my strong collection was enough to get me the Poshest Twit status where, despite Martin's enormous last exhibit, I had enough to push myself past him for the second-largest confection of riches. 

1 Sam 

2 Martin

3 Ian

4 Joe

5 Katy

A special mention must go to Johnny Weissmuller's loincloth, which seemed a somewhat incongruous addition to Joe's exhibit. But Ian was impressed enough to steal it, and Joe stole it back. Posh people, eh. 

I was pushing for my new trick-taker, Torchlit, but despite having the Trick-takeriest player in the room, I couldn't get a bite. Instead we broke out Magical Athlete, and were stunned to find Katy hadn't played it before, even Joe's old version. The second race was the most interesting/annoying, as Martin pairing Scoocher (-activates whenever a special power activates) with Katy's Gunk (-all other players movement -1) on the wacky side of the board meaning most of the race was taken up with Martin's chortling as he shoved his stupid dog along yet another space. I announced that the Scoocher/Gunk combo should be outlawed. 

The finale however saw him caught and overtaken. Joe's Banana wanted to trip people up when they passed him, but he was too far behind to ever threaten as much. Katy's Slowcoach was at the back pretty much every time her turn arrived, and hauled her in enough points to overtake Martin and take the laurels overall. I had the satisfaction of winning the last race, at least, whilst Ian was left lagging, let down by Sisyphus' die-rolling. 

Katy 14

Martin 10

Joe 9

Sam 7

Ian 4

It was only tennish, so we decided to revisit The Mind, stopping only briefly for a round of crumpets courtesy of Stan.  I forgot to take photos of this occasion, though I did get one of The Mind. This may have been our first game, where we crashed and burned at level 4. 

So we reset and went again, and with doughy snacks to fuel us, did far better. As The Mind only officially plays 4, Martin announced that with five of us we needed to complete Level 7 to win, and because he told us this once we'd completed Level 7, we'd won! But of course, where there's a mind there's a Dark Mind, and that was our next challenge. We failed one level one. It was Clover time!

There was no record of legends last night, with a 6-6-4-4-3 on both attempts. We missed Pyramid/Wizard on Ian's clover (he clued Ra) in game one, and I was gnashing my teeth as nobody put Alliance with Countryside on my clover in game two. But there were some nice clues, as always, with Joe's low sperm count (-my italics) clueing us in to Lazy/Nut and Spa giving us vacation/hole. 

Having missed last Tuesday, and now slightly whisky-infused, I could have gone again, but it was now past 11 and bedtimes were calling. Thanks all, glad we gave Hoity Toity a run-out, it's not perfect by any means but I've played far worse. And probably will again. 

The Third of March

The 3rd of March 2026 was a Tuesday, so that means it was a time for games, and so convened at Anja and Steve’s. As well as the hosts, the expected gamers included Adam H, Martin, Paul (a visiting friend of Anja & Steve’s), Pete, and myself (Ian), and we also expected young Louie to join us for an early.

Whilst we waited for everyone to arrive or finish parental duties, we had a quick game of 6 Nimmt. It’s been a while since I’d played this once perennial game, so it was good to revisit. We were playing Adam’s Walking Dead themed copy, and I think somebody pondered that bullets were more thematic than the bullheads found on the classic design.

Regardless of theming I had started to slip into a typical death spiral. We ended the game early when others had arrived at the table at the scores were thus:

Adam 10

Paul 16

Martin 27

Anja 36

Ian 43

 

As our numbers had increased, we split into two groups. Martin enticed me, Pete and Steve to try out a new acquisition, Maya – so new that we had sprues to punch. On the other end of the table, Adam, Paul, Anja and Louie set up Cottage Garden. I didn’t really follow much of what happened in their game, but think it took longer to explain than Maya did.

Maya is designed by Gilbert & Benjamin, but if you’d said this was a Knizia I would have had no reason to doubt, as it did feel very much like a game from the prolific German designer. A tile laying game, it reminded me of Rebirth and Babylonia. The theme is that we’re cultivating various crops in the ancient Maya civilization, and the theme led to some interesting phrases being banded around, such as the chain of potato farms being referred to as both a “potato wall” and “the potato belt”.

I rather enjoyed it and put in a decent performance, but Martin proved victorious.

Martin 139

Ian 121

Pete 114

Steve 95 (ish, I forgot to get scores before we started packing away)

Cottage Garden was still ongoing, so we played a quick game of Jungo. I was first to shed my cards and won, with fortuitous timing as Cottage Garden was wrapping up. I can only apologise for my lack of notes, but the scores made it sound like a fairly close game for 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but Anja had a clear lead over the others.

Anja 51

Adam 43

Louie 41

Paul 40

 

As all gamers were present, we decided to mix things up and rotate groups slightly. Adam, Paul and Steve embarked on a 7 Wonders, whilst Anja, Martin, Pete and I tried the partnership version of Gazebo.

The partnership certainly added some interesting wrinkles. The game ends when one player has placed all their Gazebos, but the winner is decided by which pair has the fewest remaining once the game has ended. Players sit next to their partner and play continues in a clockwise fashion, and Martin demonstrated the value in setting up his partner, Anja, who getting her Gazebos down with alarming pace.

Pete and I couldn’t really keep up, and Anja had soon depleted her Gazebo stash. The scores were interesting, as whilst Anja had placed all 15 of her Gazebos, Martin had only placed 3. Pete and I had a more balanced split, as we had managed to play 5 each, but the victory was Anja and Martin’s

Anja / Martin – 12 Gazebos remaining.

Pete / Ian – 20 Gazebos remaining

7 Wonders had also drawn to a close. I had been too focused on the battle of Gazebos to pay heed, but the scores make it sound like a close run game.

Steve 52

Adam 50

Paul 48

After this we finished with a game of So Clover. Strictly speaking we had more players than the official player limit of 6, but Adam fashioned a makeshift clover on a notebook and away we went. Some clue highlights include “Halberd” for “Spicy” + “Axe”, “Longbottom” for “Wizard” + “Leaf”, but there was a bit of head scratching for “Spoor”. Fortunately, somebody had managed to remember that it was something to do with animal scent, which allowed us to eventually get to “Animal” + “Marker”.

It was all going extremely well, scoring 6 after 6, but alas we fell apart when trying to decipher Adam’s clues.

Strictly speaking though, as So Clover is only marketed as a 6 player game, you could actually claim this as a perfect 6 player victory…

And with that we stepped out into the night to make our various ways home (except for Anja and Steve who were already home, and Paul who was visiting.)

Frightful Fingers

 We were a motley crew of five last night, with a few regulars otherwise engaged in family birthdays and visits to the Peak District, etc. 

Jo, Adam H, Martin and Ian joined me (Joe) at mine, and after a modicum of pleasantries we launched into Furchtlos, or Fearless, Friedemann Friese's latest card game.

It's a TWAST (trick-taker with a spooky theme - we're all ghosts), in which you don't want to stray too far into the forest in either direction (positive or negative points). Except that even if you end up in the mansion in the middle (by taking no tricks), you score 15 points. And points are bad. So I guess the ghosts really want to hang out just outside the house. I think that's all the rules...

You play a round per player, and we were playing at the full 5p. It felt, to me, a little long for a game where you have seemingly not much agency, but admittedly I did nearly twice as badly as everyone else, and noted a couple of times where I played a card and immediately realised what a bad idea it was. Interesting, and I'd happily play again but 3 or 4 player might be the sweet spot.

Jo 33

Ad 33

Martin 36

Ian 42

Joe 66

We'd begun Fearless thinking we were waiting for Andrew to join us, but he texted to say he wasn't going to make it, so we decided to stick with 5 player options. Jo produced a VHS case containing Wendybuxxx - the very nearly finished version of their newest game design, and offered to talk us through the rules. In the game we were all influencers competing in a reality TV show, and using our necro-currency to influence our popularity (apologies to Jo if I've just made all that up). The rules aren't complicated, but I'm not sure I could explain them here, and the game completely flummoxed me (I think I was still sitting in the mansion with a sheet over my head). By the end we'd all found it intriguing, and Jo assured us that it makes more sense the second time you play; I'd be up for a return visit.

I didn't make a note of the scores, but I think Martin won, and I disappeared backwards off the score track after a disastrous third round.

We moved on to Yubibo, the palette-cleansing, RSI inducing game of sticks and balls. We did slightly better than on past attempts, but still failed with half the balls still to wedge. At the moment things fell apart, Martin was complaining that his hand was rising up to the ceiling without his input - it does feel there's a sort of Ouija board aspect to the group dynamics.

We cast about for more 5 player fun, and decided on Prey Another Day. Martin's had this for ages, but I seem to recall it hasn't got much traction on Tuesday nights. I p[icked up a copy just before Christmas and have enjoyed it with family and friends quite a bit. Here I continued my losing streak, getting eaten in both the opening rounds. My luck took an upturn after that, but not enough to outscore Jo or Martin (one of whom won, I now can't quite remember).

With the hour gone 10pm, our thoughts turned to So Clover, and we managed a score of 25 out of 30. Notable were Jo's clue of Thatcher for Genius Roofer (we briefly considered Mark as a possibility), and Ian's Fingers for Glove Noodle - we got a bit sidetracked wondering whether Mummy Fingers were a thing there. 

After that Adam bid us adieu, and we four played again - not really faring much better. I can't remember much about the second round and didn't take a pic, but I struggled with a clue for Cheese/Swing, settling on Party. Unfortunately, the gang felt Cheese Field was more partyish under the circumstances (circumstances which were fair enough, me having not noticed how well Leaf went with Salad). I'm not sure So Clover really benefits from this sort of narrative re-telling, so I'll stop now.

A fine evening, and my last for a week or two - happy gaming!

You are Dewan for me

 I arrived at Joe’s house to find Martin knocking at the door as I approached. Martin looked at me quizzically and asked “did I just walk past you?” I was dimly aware of someone having strode past me a minute or so ago so maybe he had.

We began the evening as a quintet, with three others expected along the way. I was introduced to Link City “the Martin Variant”.In this game, a player draws three (or four) city sectors into their hand and decides their location on an already existing city in such a way that we’re able to guess where they would go.

The Variant is in the fact that the person who knows the city sectors also choses where the coloured cones go as opposed to the official rule where someone else places the cones. It was fun trying to work out if Ian would put a 5-star hotel next to an Intelligence Headquarters or a Leisure Centre. The only issue with the Martin Variant is making sure you’ve properly hidden your choices before revealing the options, as Martin himself forgot to do.

Katy arrived during this game and even took part in a round, scoring only one point. I wonder if there’s a thing whereby new arrivals joining games always do badly. But actually, overall we did pretty well.

43 points

Adam H and Pete join us around this point and we split into two groups. Martin, Sam, Joe and myself play Dewan. Katy looked at her co-gamers and sighed “we’ll never agree on what to play”. She made an early bid for Lords of Vegas but instead Mlem was chosen. 

And what a game it was. Ian seemed hopelessly optimistic as he immediately loaded his Deep Space Double cat onto the ship, but he made it all the way there. In fact it was a very high scoring game, with the top half of the board heavily populated while the lower reaches were largely ignored. Ian got the Deep Space Twice token and towards the end of the game Pete noted that they’d been to deep space more often than they’d exploded. Amazing scenes.

Ian 47

Pete 42

Adam 37

Katy 33

As for Dewan, this was my first game but the rules are quite straightforward. Place settlements on the map and score according to criteria on your story tiles. As we played, bits of Joe’s table fell off and I asked if we were safe as we jammed them back on again.

Joe said “it’s quite stressful” (referring to the game, not his table which he didn't seem worried about) and it ended very close. Martin scored 22 points from his story tiles while I got points for separate groups of settlements. Only an unfair and totally arbitrary tie-breaker could separate us.

Martin 38 and more cards left in hand

Andrew 38

Joe 37

Sam 34

Next up for the four of us while we waited for Mlem to finish was Jungo. My second variant of the day: this was called Hachi Train, and the deck was made up of the cards from 1 to 8 and the “two value” cards to one side as a draw pile. When putting down a stronger hand, you have to pick up the cards you just beat. 

We didn’t finish the game, playing only two rounds, so we never found out the overall loser but, for the record, I lost round one and Sam lost the second.

Now everyone was together, I decided to take a bow and leave. Without me Ian, Adam, Joe and Sam played a tiny version of Azul which Ian won with an almost indecent margin of victory.

Ian 103

Adam 56

Joe 66

Sam 45

After this they failed five times at Yubibo.

Meanwhile Pete beat Martin and Katy at Mongoose before they played 1am Jailbreak.

Katy 8

Pete 5

Martin 4

Then they played So Clover twice. Some people must have left because Sam sent photos of five then four clovers.

Another special evening. Thanks all.

Bridge of Sighs

Anja and Steve's was the venue last night, as the rain returned to Bristol once more and I picked up Ian and Martin en route. We arrived to find Anja and Louie and also Ross, who I briefly thought was a newbie only to discover he was there to plumb, as our hosts had been without water for two days already. Fortunately, Ross was to prove successful at plumbing in short order - I was getting nervous about the possibility of bathroom trips being eliminated - though he chose not to join us for the evening's entertainment, but instead go home. By this time, we'd already failed twice at YUBIBO.

It's very much a game that requires a certain type of investment. As Pete pointed out, it's as much about endurance as dexterity, as keeping your hand in a certain position for x amount of time whilst various sticks lean on it isn't a Tuesday night staple. But it was fun. 

By now Steve and Lennon had returned from rugby and Anja set about household duties as Steve joined us for a crack at Link City. We began well with Ian as mayor, getting everything right. Then our successes were rather more mixed around the table, until final mayor Joe got 4 out of 4 to right some wrongs and transform our fortunes from workaday into a high score: 40 points and officially Wow City. 

Martin remained a little indifferent to the game, but I really like it. Although I also like his suggestion that the mayor choose the locations as well. Let's try that next time. 

We now split into groups with Joe leading Ian and Martin off to Sunrise Lane, and Pete talking Anja and I through the rules of 1am Jailbreak, the somewhat niche-themed card-shedder where we are funnelling escaped prisoners through a tunnel. 

Pete found Anja and I a slightly befuddled audience, as we both failed to understand what are fairly simple rules, I think because they are a little unexpected: there are no rounds, you simply keep playing on and on until all your prisoners (ie cards in your hand) have escaped. Also unexpected: Steve, who turned up as we were about to start, but then left again, unable to make it to freedom. 

You can play sets or runs, the only caveat being it must be the same amount of cards or one more or one less as whatever amount the previous player laid. And you can also make a run for it by adding a card to the previous player's cards in order to both hike up the possibility of a big set/run - and of course, ridding yourself of a card in the process. In what I like to think are my Eastwood-in-Alcatraz qualities, I proved best at breaking out of prison in the night. Points are bad:

Sam 0

Pete 6

Anja 17

Sunrise Lane was a slightly closer thing. In fact a much closer thing, for Martin and Ian at least, although Joe wasn't a million miles away.

Martin 101

Ian 100

Joe 88

We were still escaping the penitentiary at this point, so they began playing Martin's trick-taker that is also - I was later told - a melder of Rummikub-type proportions: Doctor Science. Ian said he struggled with it, but seemed to pick up speed as they went. Unable to synchronise groups, we finished 1am Jailbreak and debated what to play next. Steve had now joined us for the duration as well, so we wanted something good for four but not too long. When I suggested Old London Bridge, to my surprise about 2/3rds of the whole room spontaneously intoned "Old London Bridge" in a deep, singsong voice. I was both alarmed and intrigued, so we jettisoned all other ideas and Steve set it up. 

I think Andrew has previously explained the rules so I won't regurgitate them here, but I really enjoyed this. Thematically it's entirely nonsensical - everyone builds their own bridge and bids for buildings - but it's speedy and interactive and different strategic approaches are available. Anja began her bridge with a bucolic park, and focused early energies on the chapel track, which determines the very common tie-breakers. All of us - except Pete I think, who was less wasteful - pushed previously-built buildings into the Thames to replace them with others, and Steve was most effective on the pink track, the name of which now escapes me. 

Anja pulled a fast one on Steve in the final round, giving the post its title. But it was Pete - the only player to complete their bridge - who was to triumph, as his sprint up the chapel track, highest-bidding cards and collection of cash saw him dwarf our efforts. 

Pete 50

Sam 42

Steve 35

Anja 26

They finished a crazy Ra around now as well. When I looked over in the first round, there was a solitary Ra tile out on Joe's bespoke mat, and yet Martin had a collection of tiles in front of him that suggested the entire game was nearly over. Fifteen of them!

I also heard Joe bemoaning his filthy luck, as various Disaster tiles emerged, turning his potential haul into a bag of Egyptian dog turds before his very eyes. Ian grabbed a snap of this horrifying ordeal for posterity.

Joe's anguish not pictured

Neither he nor Ian could catch Martin after that spectacular first round. 

Martin 48

Ian 29

Joe 28

And that was it for the night - it was already 11pm somehow so the social commuters made their way back to their cars and home again. Thanks all, it was constructive. 

No balls on balls

There were six of us at my (Sam's) house last night, and we played a medley of new and (somewhat) old, with chief purchase culprits Martin, Joe and myself all introducing new titles. I sinned first, as Martin was first to arrive and I proposed we play Link City whilst we were waiting, as the others could chip in as they joined us. 

This is a co-operative venture not a million miles from So Clover, but rather than looking for word connections on a leaf, we're building a city from tiles. One player takes a turn being the mayor, who secretly assigns the three new tiles to the three locations chosen by the deputy mayor (ie player on the mayor's left), which are represented by the road cones. Then all the non-mayor players try to figure out what the mayor would have chosen. Public toilets next to the train station or the park? Consulate next to the bank? As the others arrived - Joe, Katy, Ian and Adam H - everyone took a turn. 

But despite triggering the bonus cone with our all-answers-correct early on, we serially failed to agree on the best-laid town plans. Correct guesses are placed where 'planned' whereas wrongly-guessed tiles still get placed, but in non-scoring locations: those with no orthogonal adjacency. In theory you can rescue the situation with subsequent turns, but we never looked in danger of doing so. After Adam pronounced the town population 'idiots' - we got all his wrong - Link City ended with us on 14 points, 6 below the cut-off for 'funky town' and well into the zone of disdain. 

We flirted with the idea of splitting into threes but then Joe coquettishly showed us YUBIBO, a co-op game that played six, and we felt why not, especially when we saw the sticks and balls in the box. 

In this game, each player has a colour and on your turn you flip a card which tells you which other player you're going to combine with to hold a stick - and using which finger. Players can only use one hand for the stick work, and the game swiftly escalates from curious to madcap. 

It's a tricky game to get action snaps of, but fortunately Little Joe (-now taller than me) was on hand to help out in the paparazzi department.

The goal is to get all the sticks airborne at the same time, a task to which we did not seem suited, collapsing at first six and then eight (I think) before we pivoted to the 'balls' version of the game, where instead of adding a stick, you can place a ball into the structure. Balls can't touch fingers or other balls!

Unfortunately we discovered this morning that each pair of sticks can only support a maximum of one ball, so our triumph evaporated overnight. Meantime though there were other triumphs to be claimed: Martin began teaching Joe and Katy his new game, the trick-taker Dr Science, and I ran through the rules of TwinStar Valley with Ian and Adam. 

Both took about an hour, but other than some audible scorn at the other end of the table I missed the empirical parameters of Dr Science as I was focused on the grave ramifications of fruit delivery in fictional future Norway. 

As with Railways of the World, we're building a shared network where players can use each other's routes at a cost. Unlike Railways, the destinations themselves - the markets - are also owned, but each one specialises in two kinds of fruit: deliver that kind there and you pay the owner a coin for each one. Deliver anything else and it costs you nothing, but the fruit must be sold instantly, rather than kept back for a later transaction - prices are constantly fluctuating depending on what is sold. 

The actions you take are on a separate board, bringing a slightly puzzly euro-flavour to it all, as players can and do get in each other's way on this board. We found it interesting and pretty fast-moving, with the caveat that as newbies we seemed to hit clutch points where someone was forced to grow (add fruit to the board) only for the next in line to instantly deliver it. Maybe it's all about those early routes. 

Ian 46
Sam 34
Adam 29

Martin had already won Dr Science:

Martin 30

Joe 27

Katy 24

And they were now playing Fives, so we started more town planning with Tower Up. 

I decided fairly early that I wasn't going to focus on bonuses but instead try and get lots of visible roofs. Then I noticed Adam was in contention for bonuses and had more roofs than me. Meantime Ian put his energies into the bonuses, and ended up with a whopping 19 points for them. It was enough for another victory:

Ian 53
Adam 49
Sam 45

Fives had now finished too. Once more, I missed everything at the end of the table, lacking Andrew's multi-tasking skills on this front. But I did make a note of the scores.

Joe 14

Katy 6

Martin 5

As Tower Up was concluding they played a couple of rounds of Jungo, with Martin and Joe taking one apiece as Katy called them names. She now said she would go home unless we played So Clover, so we did, twice. In the first attempt, we overcame our bafflement at one of Joe's clues (akubra) to gather a decent 31/36

Then in the second, we made an incremental improvement, scoring 32/36 instead. I liked Joe's bar for chocolate/weather, and Katy's initiative to invent a word (automusic) for violin/robot.

We now lost Adam and Katy to fatigue, sadly, but the remaining four felt with the hour not yet 10.30 there was time for another something or other. We settled on Take Time, another co-op, this time about playing a bunch of numbered cards around a sort of clock - largely face-down - and trying to make sure their values ascend around each segment. 

New to Ian, but it's not heavy on rules so we brought him in on Chapter 2 and kicked things off with a convincing win. The next clock - there are several - was rather more tricky, and took us several attempts. Then with clock number three we made surprisingly short work of it, ending the night with a collective victory. The rain from earlier was now thankfully gone, and shortly so too were the gamers. Fun night. 

... of course

 Downstairs at Joe's place could be the name of an exclusive speakeasy in prohibition era Chicago but is, in fact, the location to which eight ardent gamers gathered. I arrived at the same time as Martin and remarked on Joe’s new dining table to which he replied it wasn’t that new at all. We put it down to the fact I hadn’t been to his house for a while, but then more people arrived and commented on Joe’s new table. He tried to explain this Mandela Effect by saying maybe there’d previously been a table cloth on it, or perhaps the new curtains were contributing to the sense of newness in the room. Either way, the mystery of Joe’s “new” table remains unsolved.

Anyway,we began with six of us (Martin , Adam H, Sam, Joe, Ian and myself) playing Continuous Pairs. Adam changed seats just after the game began, causing a little confusion in the dealing and Sam misremembered the rules for when to deal people in, but nevertheless we muddled through..

Adam played an amazing game, having a run of five consecutive values. I tried to get a photo of it but Sam had folded and he decided to take the lowest card in the run just before the photo was taken. 

Martin lost and Joe declared himself winner until someone pointed out that I had fewer points at which point Joe reverted to the official rules of there being no winner.

We played again, Katy arrived, and Sam lost.

Now we split into two groups. Martin, Adam and Katy played Gazebo, despite Katy’s reservations about the amount of plastic. Joe, Sam, Ian and I played “Fives” a trick taking game where the sum total of the winning cards in your tricks can’t exceed 25. What makes the game unique (and, some might say, unintuitive) is the fact that every card can be a purple 5, allowing you to get rid of some unwanted high value cards in your hand. 

We spent some time trying to understand when it is permissible to play a purple 5 and then we began the game. Then, after round one, Joe looked at the rules book again and noticed something in tiny writing, explaining that players can’t play more than one purple 5 cards in a trick “of course.” And it was the “of course” thing that really bothered us, as we tried to work out what part of the game set-up would suggest that particular rule. “I’m being gaslit by a rule book,” complained Joe.

So we started again and Ian impressed us all by finishing the final round with exactly 25 points in front of him, getting him a 3-point bonus.

Ian 13

Andrew 10

Sam 9

Joe 8

Gazebo had finished 

Martin - no gazebos left

Katy 4

Adam 6

And they went on to play Soda Jerk with Katy apparently unaware that this was a real thing and not just a phrase made up for a board game.

Adam 23

Katy -2 

Martin -45

Around this time Andy M arrives and he joins Martin, Ian and Katy for a game of Jungo which Martin wins, exclaiming “Soda Jerk is erased!”

Then there was a reshuffle in personnel and I was introduced to the joys of Big Wave, along with Martin, Katy and Sam. This trick-taker is “a very mental game” according to Martin although he only said this halfway through. It’s a trick taker where you have to not follow suit to any card that’s been played before in a trick. 

There are a bunch of rules that tweak the typical trick-taking procedures for those who don’t win a trick. I usually “caught a wave” allowing me to boost a future card by 2 or more points. Martin often took a point and nominated the next person to begin a hand, and invariably chose Katy. It didn’t seem to help.

Sam 58

Andrew 46

Katy 43

Martin 38

Then I left. I think Katy left too, since I later heard from Sam that he and Martin played So Clover twice, scoring 10 and then 9. Sheepy time ended with a victory for Ian with Adam in second and Joe and Andy “nowhere”.

Thanks all, it was special.