Can't say pharaoh than that

I got to this week's GNN at the remarkably prompt time of 7.35, which was early enough to see Joe whizzing past me on one of those e-scooters that the local council borrowed from the future as I walked to Sam's. 

Sadly, though, I was not able to join in with a clever word game that I usually see in its final stages because they'd either been lent out or not brought. Instead we (Katy, Martin, Ian, Adam T, Joe, Sam and me) played  A game called: about Wee Whimsical Creatures and trying to identify them after someone makes noises. This is a very simple game with a very long name which involves five monsters being dealt out and one player is given a numbered card drawn randomly. That player then makes the noise that they think the corresponding monster would make. Then everyone has to guess which one it was. Points are awarded for being right or being in the majority.

It was interesting. Katy started very badly, not scoring at all for the first few rounds. Adam H and Mel arrived midway through the game and joined in with the guessing but somehow could not be persuaded to try making some noises themselves.

Joe 7

Andrew 7

Martin 6

Adam T 5

Ian 4

Katy 2

Adam H and Mel scored points too.

Then the nine of us split into two groups. For the second week in a row the table hummed to the sound of simultaneous Profiteer/Sheepy Time rules explanation. Mel, Adam T, Ian, Martin and I played Profiteer, a cynical game of black marketeering during wartime. The American Civil War, in this case. Adam T went big on the Union early on while Mel did the opposite. After two early ties in the game I went for the long-shot result of a tie (so my British factories would score big at the end of the game) while Martin and Ian both went for a Saloon/Undertaker combo so they wanted the game to last as long as possible. Despite their near identical possibilities, Ian squeaked a win after Martin bought up some Union Victory bonds, only to see the Confederate side win the Civil War.

Ian 37

Martin 33

Mel 24

Andrew 16

Adam T 0

Sheepy Time, which I hadn’t been following, was coming to an end, and what an end it was. Joe managed to land on his pillow and so did Adam H with his last turn. But a rule-check told us that Joe would win the tie-breaker as it stood, so Adam risked another lap before the Nightmare caught him and successfully too.

Adam H: past his pillow

Joe: on his pillow

Sam: within sight of his pillow

Katy: pillow still some distance off

Then we reshuffled our chairs. Joe, Ian, Mel, Adam H and I played Ra. I was Mel’s first go and as she got a rules explanation, we admired Joe’s newest addition to his increasingly pimped out Ra set: a tile cube, to replace the cloth bag of the standard deluxe version. It looked nice but I’m not sure it worked in practice. 

For a moment Joe thought he’d forgotten the rule book and so we didn’t know how to distribute the sun tiles at the start of the game. Luckily Martin told us how to do it (lay out two to six, then seven to twelve in a row beneath and finally thirteen to sixteen the other way) but Joe thought it looked wrong. Then he found the rules and was able to check for sure. Martin had it spot on. “Of course Martin was right,” Joe seethed good naturedly.

As for the game, I went big on Niles and Pharoahs, which is where the blog title came from even if it was an old joke. Adam did well on civilizations as I recall and Mel, despite dipping down to 0 points mid-game, rallied at the end thanks to having four “Beatles” monuments among her wide array of buildings.

Adam 34 + highest sun tile

Andrew 34

Joe 32

Ian 28

Mel 20

Martin, Adam T, Katy and Sam played Nokosu Dice. I tried to catch a flavour of the game, and scribbled down a few phrases like “this is mad,” (Martin) “I’m sure I was going to go home early,” (Katy) and “we have to fuck Sam,” (Martin again). But I had to leave before the game ended. 

Thanks all for the games and the memories. See you next week.