Gods and Monsters

The planets were not so much aligned as divided Chukka Umunna style as the latest Tuesday-becomes-Thursday lost players at a rate of knots: no Katy or Joe, and Andrew and Adam T lost late in the day to fatigue and - a first for GNN - annual haircut.

So when 7.30 rolled around it was Martin, Ian, Stanley and myself sat at the table. First out of the blocks was LAMA: familiar to all but Stan. The newbie started badly when he lost the opening round, but with Martin and I also taking heavy losses, Stan recovered ground and went out in round four to return a chip and claim a narrow win:

Stan 12

Ian 14

Sam 30

Martin 41

We then took on the collaborative effort of foiling Belratti (Andrew explained the game here ) but, perhaps suffering from that lack of alignment, found ourselves repeatedly letting the forger through the door and it didn't take long for him to win:

Belratti : 6

Us: 9 (needed 15 to win)

With the lighter fare out of the way Stan went upstairs to read as Martin talked us through the rules of Gheos, the game that Andrew hated. Ian didn't hate it, but had said he'd play it again. So now he could! It was entirely new to me, and it's one of those rules-light decisions-heavy bamboozlers where almost everything you do has the potential to screw someone over, but doing so makes it more likely that they'll behave in kind. Players are Gods, placing tiles on an ever-growing landscape of islands and continents, and 'investing' in the tribes of these lands as they expand, encounter each other, and fail to get on. Everyone has three opportunities to score and Ian took his early, as the yellow tribe offered decent returns with a large continent that Martin and I were blocked out of.

After that, though, he fretted that he'd peaked too early. I fretted that I wouldn't peak at all, as Ian was now on 20-plus points, Martin 7 and I was stuck on zero. It's a hard game to get your head around the multitude of opportunities and each one's knock-on effects, and my habit to play conservatively in luck-pushing games (see: Incan Gold) meant I ended up with an almost identical set of followers to Martin, unable to catch him as a result because if either of us scored, we both scored the same amount. I needed to sabotage him somehow but I couldn't work out how.

Martin meanwhile, was busy sabotaging Ian, and Ian sabotaged right back as the largest continent kept rupturing and repairing itself. As it turned out, Ian had peaked too early, and I'd peaked too late:

Martin 91

Sam 77

Ian 66

"I'd play it again" said Ian, in the manner of someone imagining themselves imprisoned and not allowed in the exercise yard.

Next was Eggs of Ostrich. I confess I don't remember a huge amount about it because at this point - I blame Gheos - I was a bit drunk. I know none of my bags went bust, but none of them got filled either.

Martin 9 

Ian 7 

Sam 5

Ian went home at this point and Martin and I went to choose a game. To my surprise Martin suggested Brave Little Belgium, which I've played a lot recently solo: a 1-2 player endeavour of WWI where the Germans try to cross Belgium to reach France, and the Allies (the Entente) must stop them. We looked at the time, considered my familiarity with it, and dove in. However as we set up I realised how drunk I was as I started trying to explain the rules and couldn't remember any of them.

Luckily Martin's capacity to listen, read, and play all at the same time clarified things as I forgot to mention a couple of crucial points. Mostly though it is rather simple: chits are pulled from a bowl to see which army activates; choosing to sit pat or move. If it encounters an enemy, combat is automatically initiated, and either side can use previously-pulled Event chits that empower or hamper as appropriate: the Germans (me) can use Big Bertha to damage Belgian forts, and Zeppelins to aid in combat. The Entente can sabotage German movement. Either side can Force March troops to get them further down a particular path.

It's unsurprisingly combative from the get-go, with different armies having different strengths, and for the Entente very attritional: the Germans begin strongly and before the first round was over, the fort at Liege (one of three German objectives) was wiped out. The other German objectives are the turn the fort at Namur to dust, and get an infantry unit over the victory line and into France.

At one stage it looked like I might achieve neither, as Martin force-marched the French army of De Cary north to defend Namur, and managed to get in my way enough to prevent me reaching the victory line. I sent wave after wave of men to Namur and eventually beseiged it and overthrew the defenders in a bloody battle. But I still needed to reach the victory line and at this point the British had arrived and were getting in my shit. I headed north to avoid them and looked to be on the verge of victory with an assault on Ghent - only for the Entente to hold out against the odds. They did finally fall - but by this time it was the final round, by which time reaching my three objectives only represents a draw - just like real war, there's no winners.

Fun to revisit, if only to have the unfamiliar sensation of having Martin ask me advice. Feeling unqualified to give it was pretty familiar though. And that rounded off an unusually scarce, but enjoyable GNN night for another week.