Three orthogonally-adjacent days of fun

Friday began like any other Friday. The sun rose, trains rattled out of sidings and into service, the recycling was collected, children went to school. But for a few of us, the heart beat a little faster. Because today was the first day of the games night weekend.

Sam, Joe and myself set off for a converted chapel in the middle of nowhere in the early afternoon, and arrived at around half past three. Paul and Chris turned up half an hour later, and we stood around for ten minutes or so chatting, before we realised: what are we doing? We should be playing games!

The weekend starts here...

Tsuro was the game to kick it all off. We trailed, we blazed, and we eventually toppled off the edge of the board like an ageing old man sinking face first into his soup. We then played Incan Gold twice and by now Joe had sped into an early lead with two wins out of three. But it was early days, and nothing substantial had been brought to the table.

When Jon, Steve and Anja arrived, all that nonsense ended. We split into two groups and set ourselves a real challenge. Anja, Steve and Joe went for that family favourite of recreating the German postal system, Thurn and Taxis. How anyone can call board games "niche", I've no idea. The rest of us (Sam, Chris, Paul, Jon and me) became Lords of Waterdeep. Sam talked the newbies through the rules and I tried to help, too. I remember explaining that you didn't get the owner's bonus if you used your own buildings by saying "... because you can't tickle yourself, can you?" I meant: you don't get an extra benefit from your own actions, but I don't know if that's how it came across.

"It looks like a pub" said Charlotte when she saw this photo.
Like that was somehow a bad thing. JB

(By now, you may be wondering where the scores are. Well, that would turn this blog post into an epic. So to save time, when I've decided to list the people playing I've put them in the order they ended, from first to last. So in the last paragraph, Anja won Thurn and Taxis, and Sam won Lords of Waterdeep.)

While Jon, Anja and Steve prepared food, we all played Lost Temple. Sam won this slightly silly race game by a tactic of finding a "Go forward five spaces" bonus tile five spaces before the finish line. Well done him.

Steve and Anja discovered some ancient artifacts to prepare food in. JB

After we ate some delicious food, Anja, Steve and myself played Wallenstein. I upset Steve by ignoring the unwritten rule of always going after whoever is in first halfway through. Instead, I went after him since he was in second and I was third. It made no difference.

Wallenstein by sunset

Hannah and Joe and Sam played Glory to Rome, while Paul, Adam, Chris and Jon played the multi-coloured strategy game Nexus Ops which really does look like armies of models from Games Workshop fighting over some puke.

But despite the dusk having long gone, a hardy band of gamers determinedly carried on. Joe, Adam, Chris and Jon tried Sewer Pirates (or Die GulliPiratten), a game which looked quite pretty, but baffling. Something about boarding boats. And snails are rubbish. I was too tired to watch for too long, and left them to it, well past one a.m.

The next day, I awoke at seven, and went for a walk in the early morning mist.

Outside. Complicated rules, but some great artwork.

When I came back, Joe was up and about so I taught him how to play Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small. This became the game of the weekend, with pairs of gamers using it as a filler while they waited for games to end or food to be served.

This was followed by me, Chris, Adam and Joe playing Alhambra while Sam, Anja, Hannah and Jon played Ys. But soon after that game, Jon retired to his room, ill, and wasn't seen again til the afternoon. Paul, too, didn't emerge from his room until noon, having not slept for thirty-six hours due to work shifts. Steve stayed in bed for hours, too. No idea why. Maybe he was still annoyed about Wallenstein.

There followed a flurry of short two-player games. Adam beat Joe at Manoeuvre, Hannah beat me at Mr Jack and Chris beat Sam at Scrabble. Once Steve and Paul had risen and dinner had been eaten (my hand made pizzas, although I shot myself in the foot since I'd put my own pizza sauce into a Sainsbury's pasta sauce jar. Didn't look very home-made.) we could start gaming in seriousness again.

Chris, Sam, Steve, Anja and a-still-not-100% Jon played Bohnanza and Joe and Paul played Aton. Then Hannah beat Adam at Mr Jack, and Sam, Chris, Paul and Joe played Biblios. Chris came second which, by now, was becoming a recurring theme.

But as Joe had always wanted, Saturday afternoon hosted a game every bit as epic and American as the old western that was probably on Channel Five at that very same time. Railways of the World: Eastern US is a monster of a game, and with five players, it was expected to last. Joe spent some time preparing the gaming area with comfy chairs and set up all the pieces beforehand. He reminded me of a bird preparing its nest.

Home-maker Joe

While Adam, Paul, Joe, Anja and Steve played Railways..., Sam, Hannah, Chris and me played San Marco. The three of them fought of first place, while I fell further and further behind. Then, with the railways of the Eastern American sea board still far from complete, Jon (looking healthier now), me and Hannah played Power Grid. I'd played this once before, and did not have great memories of it, but found it a more enjoyable affair this time. Perhaps in the years since then, I've learnt more about what makes a board game work. Sam and Chris played Macao.

Finally, after three and a half hours, Railways of the World was complete. Adam won, and I was impressed by their stamina. They all stood around and reminisced about the last few hours as if it were some great ordeal they'd all been through, and come out the other side as better people.

RotW in progress, with Power Grid in the background.
This is the exact moment Adam realised he could get his revenge
on me for denying him access to the rulebook. JB

The final board and scoretrack from space. And my socks. JB

After this, some of us went for a walk in the country side. Steve had the map, which lead to some... "creative" navigating. Leading us into a dark cluster of trees, insisting "It's all good" was only the high point of a series of exciting new rambling options he found. Meanwhile, Joe was startled by a cat and Jon trod down brambles like a real man.

... and we never saw them again.

Back at the house, Paul beat Chris by one point in two-player Agricola. Then with everyone back from the walk, Joe dug out Pickomino. This dice-based worm-collecting game is easy to learn and agonising to play. Sam, me, Joe, Jon, Steve and Anja battled out one game, and then Anja, Steve, Sam, Paul, Chris, Jon and me played a second round.

After food supplied by Hannah and Adam, we split into two. Adam persuaded Paul and Hannah to play Puerto Rico, and then duly won. Meanwhile, Joe and I convinced Chris and Sam that Lords of Vegas was the perfect game for a Saturday night. We adopted bad gangster accents, and rolled them bones while trying to set up successful casinos along Sunset Strip. I quickly built up a very commanding lead, but then watched in horror as Chris slowly gained on me, with me keeping one step ahead by some lucky dice rolls. For the last two rounds, I was just wishing each card would be the End Game card, which thankfully came just in time. Meanwhile Joe and Sam languished far behind, which shows up the game's flaw. Very few opportunities for catching up if you fall too far behind. Some games claim to be fun for all the family, but I'm not even sure if Lords of Vegas is fun for all the players. I like it, though.

Garish colours? Artificial lighting? It's Vegas, baby!

As we finished our game, Paul beat Hannah at Agricola; All Creatures... and Steve, Anja and Jon played Lords of Waterdeep. Then, once we were all between games, we decided on the only ten-player option we had: 6nimmt. The game was quite different, since every card in the deck was in someone's hand or on the table. There was no point in putting a card down, hoping that the cards immediately below it wouldn't be in play. Still, it was fun, once we'd worked out how to show that everyone had made their decision (place a finger on your card). Sam won.

After that, people retired to sleep, except Chris and Paul who played one final game of Nile. A card game of harvesting and speculating. I watched, and I think I understood it, apart from the speculating bits. Not too clear on harvesting, either, but apart from that...

Sunday dawned, grey and wet. Perfect gaming weather. Once again, Joe and I were the early birds, and Joe taught me Castles of Burgundy. Hannah and Jon played two games of Hey, That's My Fish!, sharing a victory each. Joe commended Jon on getting the emphasis right on the title. Jon called it "Hey, That's MY Fish", stressing the ownership of the fish in question. Joe had always said "Hey, that's my FISH", stressing the nature of the thing being argued over. But, Joe reasoned, what else would a penguin have to argue about? A stereo? Some flapjacks? Of course not. So Jon's pronunciation must be correct. Chris, Adam, Sam and Hannah played a third game, quite oblivious to Joe's eureka moment.

Following that, Adam beat Joe at Agricola: All Creatures, while Steve and Anja shared a Thelma and Louise moment, throwing themselves off the board in Tsuro at the same time.

Breakfast was done, and time was ticking on. For the majority, there was just one last game to be played. Adam, Joe and Jon chose Railways of the World, but chose the smaller, faster Mexico map. In the end Adam won a very close game by a tie-breaker on money. Hannah, Chris and I played Macao. I went for a new tactic of ignoring the items and relying on bonuses for cards. It didn't work.

Pretty little railways down Mexico way, at the end of the game. JB

Paul, Sam, Steve and Anja played Genoa. Paul won by delivering messages and bartering, with no contracts or owning any buildings. Quite an impressive strategy. Finally, it was time for some of us to leave. Chris and Paul went first, and then after a little cleaning (and discovering that the vacuum cleaner really smelt odd when you used it) Joe, Sam and I leapt in the car and sped away into the rain.

This left Jon, Steve, Anja, Hannah and Adam to finish off with one last game, Il Principe. Adam texted me the results, and it must have been a frustrating game for him, since he ended the text with "Don't ask."

So those are all words, what about the numbers?! There is no form table, since we didn't stop playing long enough to think about our recent form. (Forty-three games in three days, by the way. That's about that same we play in three months.)

Instead it's all about the Q-system. And we find a very interesting new face on top of the pile at the end of the weekend.

Chris' consistent form at coming in second is just what you'd expect from an Arsenal fan. But unlike his beloved Gunners, it puts him at the top of the pile. And well done to Sam for highest points ratio and for leading the medals table. Judging by his gloomy review of his own form as we drove home, I know he won't be expecting this result.

Sam wins on points and Anja takes the points ratio, demonstrating that these two aren't sprinters but are grand master tacticians, preferring a deeper challenge to the silly lightweight games.

(In this table, the points you get on the Q-system are multiplied by the number of hours a game lasts. So, a thirty minute game would see your points halved, while a game lasting an hour and a half would be multiplied by 1.5. Game lengths taken from boardgamegeek.)

A quick note to end, Paul wins on the absolute score. If you take his games and add them all together, he scored 1070 points, beating Anja (998 points) and Sam (997 points). Well done, Paul. I suspect winning Genoa helped. Here are all the numbers!

Thanks everyone for a great weekend. Quick wits, quicker strategies and some very good food.

Oh, and the list of labels was too long for blogger (200 character maximum, apparently), so a lot of the games are missing from the list below and that's why it says Agricola, not Agricola: All Creatures etc etc.