Harbour Master Blaster

The recent tradition of gamers just passing through continued this week at GNN. Today's arrival was Garry, a writing chum of Sam. Along with these two were Joe (the host), Dan, Martin, Katy, Adam (the new one) and me.

Early on: crisps and... conversation?!

We begun in glorious co-op mode with Just One. Early on, Joe chose his usual path of obscure cultural references and when he didn't, he kept syncing with Adam. Although, truth be told, there were very few duplicates. Katy had the worst luck when she had to guess "sand" with only three clues. But she did it! Dan’s use of “band” as a clue for “tool” worked wonders when Katy used “Tool” as a clue for “Music” when he was guessing. And we went on to get eleven out of twelve, finally impressing the usually snide score track, which read "Awesome! That's a score worth celebrating!"

And celebrate we did. With more games. Joe and Katy were introduced to Sol by Sam and Martin. Dan and Garry were introduced to Potato Man by Adam and I.

Potato Man was fun, with a couple of evil potatoes being vanquished by Super Potato Man. I, however, felt awkward about referring to the green suit as Sexy Potato Lady in front of three people I didn't know so well. Meanwhile, I had a good couple of early rounds while Adam was stung by Explainer's Curse.

Andrew 25
Dan 19
Garry 17
Adam 10

After that, with the sun on the other side of the table still looking pretty stable, I suggested Manila. This fun game of betting and luck-based piracy was new to our newcomers, so I talked them through the rules. Was I hit by Explainer's Curse? Or was it more of a case of Adam finding a winning formula and milking it for all it was worth. His (almost) monopolizing of Harbour Master, who then invested in blue cloth which sent the share price rocketing up and brought the game to an end sooner than I was expecting.

My attempts at piracy to try and thwart Adam's relentless victory came to nothing, but luckily Brown stuff (coffee?) also hit the highest level which bailed me out.

Adam 168
Andrew 105
Dan 70
Garry 64

It lacked the usual swings of outrageous fortune that Manila is so good at, but I think the two newbies liked it.

But what of Sol? They played the 'vestigial structure' variant, allowing them to build in the outer three rings of the board. It's the same variant that I'd played before but I had no idea it had such a grand name.

Katy began slowly, and was still on two points while the other three had moved into the low teens. Martin hardly built anything but he did build two gates in a row, at the end of which Joe built one of those energy transmission thingies in a kindly gesture of "hey, come on in!'

Katy clawed her way out of last while Sam managed to resist the urge to hurl his ships into the sun and it seemed to work for him.

Sam 26
Martin 19
Katy 17
Joe 13

We were still out of sync at this point. I brought out High Society, hoping to time its ending with the finale of Sol but I misjudged it. The game, new to Garry, was mean as ever. Garry picked up an early "1/2" card, meaning he was rich enough to pick up the 10 card. But he was in the strange situation of always bidding against players who thought that the cards were worth twice as much as he did. As such, despite picking up a "x2" card later on, he lost due to lack of funds. It ended with both he and Dan on one card left in their hands, but Dan's was the $25 million card.

Dan 12
Andrew 6
Adam 6
Garry Out! (But scored 11)

Sol had ended and they banged out a quick Kribbeln. And what a game it was. I only caught the end, but even in those few rolls, drama ensued.

Sam was poised to win, needing to beat 29 with his six dice, rolled 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 2. So close. He picked up the 2 and rolled it... a one! How cruel.

Then Joe, also needing to beat 29, rolled 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3. But instead of just picking up the three to roll again, he picked up the three and four. Audacious! And he rolled a 6-6! Amazing. It put him in joint first with Martin and won the game on the tie-breaker.

Joe 22 (plus highest Krib)
Martin 22
Sam 20
Katy 15

Then it was time for Adam to leave. I suggested he could join in by phone if we played Incan Gold, and the mention of this triggered a sudden desire in Joe, wiping aside the previous suggestions of 6nimmt or Tomate Karate. We played Diamant, the new version of Incan Gold, where flimsy paper tents are replaced by sturdy cardboard chests and Zombie Ladies are sadly gone, with rolling logs of spikes in their place.

Katy stayed in longest in round one and got a 17 card all to herself! After that, it was all a matter of trying to catch her. Martin decided the only way to win was to stay in longer than she did. Sam went in the opposite direction, getting out early as soon is it seemed profitable (picking up a rare artifact in round three). And it could’ve worked if the more adventurous among us had had a little more bad luck. Instead, it was a high scoring game.

Katy 54
Andrew 33
Martin 31
Sam 31
Joe 29
Garry 27
Dan 21

And despite coming last, Dan made a note of the game on his phone, declaring that he was going to buy it. A convert!

And then Katy and I departed, with the clock just passing eleven. The rest carried on with Kakerlaken Poker. Thanks to some notes from Sam, I can tell you that “Dan began haemorrhaging stink bugs” was as a remarkably evocative description of the game as you could wish for. Garry, professing uselessness at the real poker, began badly. And just as Martin hit two of something, he passed a card to Dan, saying it was a stink bug. Dan didn’t believe him, but Martin spoke the truth.

Dan loses
Everyone else wins.

Thanks to Sam for the late night results, and thanks to all for joining in for a fun evening. I wonder who our travelling visitor will be next week.