All's well that Gravwell

 It was almost like old times as I arrived at Sam’s at an almost-on-time 7.40. It was already full, and we had two more to arrive so we (Sam, Joe, Ian, Adam T, Gareth, Martin and me) played Cross Clues. Across the top we had Disgust which caused some interesting clues, such as “jizz” for Digust/Helmet. We ended with 22 out of 25, with all three mistakes linked to the word “Monkey” for some reason.

Adam H arrived with chips and Laura was expected at “around 8” so we split into two groups. The quartet (Joe, Martin, Gareth, Adam T) played Mille Fiori, a game so generous with its scoring that “points salad” seems inadequate (despite Martin clearly saying “broccoli for two points”) and is better described as a “point smorgasbord”. Despite the myriad of scoring opportunities, it ended very close. Joe maintained his 100% record in the game.

We played Gravwell, a game in which you don’t go backwards or forwards, you go towards or away from the nearest mass. Laura texted that she’d be there at 8.15 so we began without her: initially choosing her cards at random before Sam started playing for her. As such when she arrived she was already in the lead. The game was frustrating, but some of that could be down to lack of familiarity. For example, blue cards are useful at first but if all the ships are behind you, you need red cards to push yourselves away from them.

 

I found myself becalmed in a section of space as evidenced by two photos taken half an hour apart in which I clearly have barely moved. Adam H had similar problems, dawdling aimlessly at the far side of the board before he suddenly leapt into action, moving past all of us until he was so close to the finish that when Laura played her card (repel all objects three spaces) it pushed him onto the final square.

Adam

Laura

Ian

Andrew

Sam

 

Then we split into three groups of three. Martin, Gareth and Laura played Keltis at one end of the table. Ian, Adam H and I set up Flamme Rouge at the other end and Joe, Sam and Adam T squeezed a game of Ninety-nine into the gap in the middle.

It was lovely to play Flamme Rouge again, although we needed a rule refresher. It wasn't long before we were enjoying the thrill of the chase. Adam broke away first, causing Ian and I to send our sprinters after him.

It was very close at the end. Adam was approaching the final corner with Ian and I right on his tail. It all depended on who had the better cards in their hand.

I did. Although we all crossed the line, I went furthest. Adam claimed a victory of sorts, because he got two riders across the line. For the sake of completeness, these were the standings…

1 Andrew

2 Ian

3 Adam H 

4 Adam H

5 Ian

6 Andrew

As for Keltis, Martin won with Laura and Gareth both tying for second/last about twenty points behind.

Ninety nine ended with Adam T securing the win, despite him declaring at the start that he was terrible at the game. Sam finished one card away from completing his bid, but ninety-nine is a cruel game and he finished a distant last.

Then Laura, Adam T and Gareth left and the remaining six of us finished on So Clover. Let’s just say that the pressure to all be perfect was off fairly quickly after Sam’s success (Travolta=Grease+Fool) Martin was undone by a number of possible combinations and we failed to choose the right one at all. Joe also came a cropper as we failed to note that Couch links to Observer in that someone on a couch is probably observing something.

After that, I set off. My clover had already been dealt out but I was determined not to give in to temptation. So Sam did mine for me. And, just like when he was playing for Laura at the start of the evening, he did pretty well, getting a perfect score on mine.

Thanks all, see you next Tuesday.

oceans a-livin'

 Having missed Tuesday’s regular meet, I was pleased to hear of a Thursday meet up at Sam’s. This was, I thought, just a three-hander with Sam, myself and Adam H playing Dominant Species Marine. Imagine my (slight) surprise when I arrived at the uncommonly prompt time of 7.35 to find Martin also there, with Joe expected shortly.

Martin and Joe played each other at Watergate, a game in which one player is Nixon (Martin, possibly typecast) and the other plays the role of the journalists trying to uncover his evil plot.

I know nothing about it, nor who won. 

As for this end of the table, Sam talked us through DSM and it was a little complicated. When Sam was called away from the table on family business, Adam and I tried to work out what an"action space" might be. But once we began, it seemed to make sense and my source of AP was whether or not to dawdle at the top of the list of actions or head straight to the good stuff at the bottom. Tricky because once you play an action, you can’t choose another action from further up: you must keep going down. Unless you have a special pawn, then you can go anywhere.

I seemed quite good at choosing actions that Sam was relying on, which is a positive sign for a beginner. Adam seemed to get the worst of extinction events, despite him also being a newbie. But I think both Sam and I tried to be fair in who’s animals we killed off.

At the end (after the asteroid), we counted up the points scored for special pawns. I had none while Sam and Adam had three each. This pushed Sam into first place and he celebrated his win for a second or two until Adam reminded him (and me) that we needed to score the board too. Sam’s demeanor instantly fell, as he had little presence on the board whereas my clever use of the aforementioned asteroid meant I had plenty of high scoring land to myself.

Andrew 87

Adam 84

Sam 78

I think being a reptile helped, since I always won ties. Would be keen to play it again. Even though Sam slimmed out the deck beforehand for a shoreter game, it was still a substatial two-hour game that filled me up nicely and I set off home for the evening. The rest of them continued. According to Sam in a text later, Adam beat Sam at Clubs (not sure what Joe and Martin were playing when I left) and then after Sam beat Adam at Schnipp & Weg, Adam went home.

Finally, Martin beat Joe and Sam at Letterpress.

Thanks all, a nice little soiree. See you all soon.

The Death of Brian

 I (Sam, our de facto blogger Andrew being a late drop-out) arrived at Joe's place a little later than usual to find just three gamers at the table: the host, Ian, and Martin. They were puzzling out hidden codes in Break the Code, a game that broke my mind when I played it. All I can remember at the time is thinking what the fuck do all these numbers mean just as Joe announced he'd cracked it. Martin and Ian had no such qualms, though, and whilst I munched through a sandwich they all won the game at the same time. 

What next? Martin began campaigning to play Brian Boru, the trick-taking game of Irish border control. Despite my emerald heritage, Joe's love of trick-taking and Ian's fascination with borders, nobody really bit. Both Joe and I said we'd be up for playing it again, but it wasn't high on our wishlists. 

"Yeah" Martin sighed. "That's the problem with games" 

He rattled the box seductively one last time, and then put it away. But for how long?

Instead we played Babylonia, reducing Martin's chances of victory from 100% to a more competitive 90 or so. Joe began well, harvesting point-scoring opportunities in a kind of guerrilla-esque approach. Martin and Ian schemed. I attempted to build a connection of tiles all the way across the map, and found my plans regularly harpooned by three dickheads who kept getting in my way.

Or possibly it's more correct to say I sucked big time. As Joe's momentum slackened a little mid-game, it became a fight between Martin and Ian, and Martin snuck his farmers into operation a fraction before Ian could, pushing his narrow lead into a more substantial one. 

Although Ian was scoring plenty for cities, it wasn't enough, and he ended the game before Martin could scalp any points for himself:

Martin 168

Ian 141

Joe 127

Sam 114

Next up was Set & Match: Doubles, as Martin and I took on Ian and Joe.

This was hilarious. The scoring is identical to real tennis, and the court is pretty much the same too. Where the game comes to life is in both the flicking, and the clever way momentum swings during rallies, pushing one side further towards the point if your 'shot' lands in a tricky-to-get-to place: the corners of the court; right by the net and so on. 

Joe and Ian kept getting the yips and hit multiple double-faults. Joe managed to serially flip the tennis ball disc over and send it rolling off court. I was more at home with this game (push something with your finger) than Babylonia (use your brain) and enjoying thwacking the 'ball' diagonally cross-court: Martin and I ran out winning three sets to love.

We then swapped Wimbledon for the Mariana, and crewed up for Mission: Deep Sea. My notes here say

1 Sam fucks up

2 twice

3 we succeed

which is probably as succinct a way of putting it as any. Computing all the possibilities in a round of The Crew is a struggle for me at the best of times, and I was starting to feel tired. I'm glad we managed to succeed in our mission, even though I've no idea what it was.

Joe had insidiously laid out Memoarrr! on the table and we were tempted. I'd forgotten how much fun it is - a simple memory game where whatever the player before you turned over, you must now reveal a card that matches either the animal, or the colour.

We all struggled at times, Martin most of all, and cursed the seeming absence of tortoises. And although Martin won the last two rounds, thanks to the skewy scoring system it didn't do him much good:

Sam 6
Joe 4
Martin 3
Ian 2

It was only just gone ten but I was shattered and had to head home. In my absence, they played Art Robbery (not sure who won) and after Ian left, Joe beat Martin at LLAMA. Until next time!

Breaking the fours, breaking the fours

 I arrived at 8.10 having already missed two games of Spicy.

Joe 29

Adam H 27

Sam 10

Adam T 10

Sam 27

Joe 25

Adam H 20

Adam T 7

With my feet snugly under the table, we now numbered seven since Martin and Gareth had arrived. We split into two groups of three and four. Sam, Adam H and myself played Llama Land while Joe, Martin, Gareth and Adam T chose Mille Fiore which is a Reiner Knizia game, albeit one that's somewhat over produced with shiny plastic ships and diamond shaped tiles.

Llama Land resembled NMBR9 inasmuch as your tessellating pieces while slowly building upwards. Collect items to complete sets and score points, but this means putting a Llama on your land, making further upward building a bit tricky.

It was okay. It felt as if someone had once played NMBR9 and wished it had more potatoes. Adam took to it like a duck to water and won by miles. Sam was hit by explainer’s curse.

Adam 137

Andrew 92

Sam 88

While Mille Fiore continued, we three played out two rounds of Take It Easy. Sam’s category was animals and after it, I was in a slender lead. But then I was caller. I chose snacks (including “pouring hundreds and thousands into your mouth”) but my mojo had gone (breaking the line of fours was the least of my issues) and I didn’t even break three figures.

Adam 314

Sam 309

Andrew 274

On Mille Fiore, it all looked very complicated. People were berating Joe for insisting that he had no idea what was going on while building up a healthy lead. In between people asking “Is this Nick Lowe?” to the music, Martin likened it to being “stuck inside a pinball machine” and Adam T had a late surge to finish in a respectable rather than disastrous fourth.

Joe 183

Martin 163

Gareth 160

Adam T 145

During this time, Joe’s wife Charlotte interrupted us to offer fruit cake which was a keen to finish off soon. “Cake Rubble” she called it, as most was in moist chunks, but it was still very tasty and made a change from chipsticks.

Now we split up and reshuffled again. Well, Sam and Gareth swapped seats. Adam H, Gareth and I went for that game of skill and technique, Kribbeln. Sam, Martin, Joe and Adam T played Scout.

Adam played Kribbeln almost as annoyingly as he’d played Llama Land and Take It Easy. On his first Krib (goal: just roll a high score) he got 24. And then on the following Kribs (goal: score higher than the previous Krib) he rolled 25, 26 and 27. Gareth recovered from a slow start to finish comfortably in second.

Adam H 20

Gareth 15

Andrew 10

As for Scout, apart from Adam T’s opening move of playing four 9s, I didn’t follow it.

Martin 27

Joe 26

Sam 22

Adam T 16

And with that, Adam T and Gareth left. The remaining five got out good old So Clover. The first two words I got were “Toy” and “Outlet” and I blurted out how easy it was. I found other words harder, but I’m relieved that I hadn’t jinxed myself and my clover was correctly solved. So was everyone else’s except Sam’s who was unlucky enough to have Shell and Painting among the possible answers for his clue of “Oil”.

There was a brief interval as Charlotte made another intervention, this tiem to tell us about the remarkably pretty full moon currently visible. We went up to Joe’s living room, cautiously avoiding hitting the coffee table with our shins since the light was out, and admired it’s bronze hue.

Back in So Clover, I must tip my hat to Martin who had to distinguish between “trophy” and “award”. To do so, he chose “Wife” as his clue for “trophy” especially since it also went with the other word next to “trophy”: “screw”.

With that, we were done. Off into the sultry night, under a fat orange moon that was so pretty that even a total stranger in the street told me I needed to see it. Thanks all. Next week, eh?

Spy Power

 I arrived just in time to see the last couple of clues of Cross Clues being posed. Ian, Laura, Joe, Martin and host Sam did well for time but fell short of perfection, getting three or four wrong.

The six of us stayed together for a six-player game of Wandering Towers. This was my first attempt at this simple game, new to GNN last week, and I managed to put a meeple in the tower with my first move. But any notion that I might have had that this would be easy was soon dispelled – I wouldn’t get another meeple into the tower until after Ian neatly dropped his third guy into the castle, triggering the end of the game.

Laura was the last to play and she thought she could get her last meeple in the tower, if only she knew where it was. Her first card allowed her to move a tower. She chose a tower, hoping to see her third guy underneath. No joy. Such is Wandering Castles.

Ian 3

Sam 2 (and four filled potions)

Joe 2, Laura 2, Andrew 2, Martin 2

Then we split into two groups of three. Joe, Ian and Sam chose Switch The Signal, a co-op train game. Laura, Martin and I played an ancient classic, Web of Power. This was Laura’s first game and my first game for about ten years, so a rules explanation was duly doled out by Martin.

But Web of Power has a few quirks that kept tripping Laura up, such as only one cloister in a new territory and that the maximum number of advisors in a region is equal to the number of cloisters in that territory owned by leading player in that region.

I enjoyed it. It was nice to go back after all this time. I don’t think I did particularly well, apart from a move that annoyed Martin, robbing him of ten points. That was satisfying.

Martin 75

Andrew 58

Laura 48

I didn’t really follow Switch The Signal, apart from catching the phrase “he’s got an itchy bum now,” uttered by Sam. At the end of the game, they declared themselves winners but only after awarding themselves an extra turn which, according to the rules, shouldn’t have been given.

While they were finishing off Switch The Signal, Laura, Martin and I banged out a quick High Score. As Martin explained the rules he demonstrated with a number of successful dice rolls. He put his cube high up the score track while I argued that those were just examples and shouldn’t count. My logic wasn’t taken seriously but I needn’t have worried. A run of good results for me (in round four, I scored 32 while Martin scored 8) meant I went into the final round just needing to avoid going bust to win. I accepted my first legal roll and took first place in a close match.

Andrew 15

Martin 14

Laura 13

On the other half of the table Sam won a quick game of Spicy, having won two 10s which was the first time he’d ever done that, apparently.

Then Laura left and the five of us played Decrypto. Joe and I were a team and we got a miscommunication in our first round. Joe’s clue of “Pret a Porter” should have pointed me to “Pocket” but instead I thought “Porter” was a reference to portaloos, so I chose “toilet”.

But I made up for it, noticing that Sam’s clue of “Ant/Zebra” seemed to reference A-Z, eventually leading Joe and I to guess Dictionary for that word. We got an interception for our second white token and won the game. Interestingly, I think both teams were on the right track for most words, even though we’d only played three rounds. Clearly we are all out of practice.

Joe and Andrew, I spy with my little eye

Sam, Martin and Ian, Blind Man’s Buff

At this point I went home, leaving the remaining quartet to play Ghosts of Christmas.

Martin 16

Joe 16

Ian 3

Sam 2

Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you next week.

Lose on rails

After  a detour due to a closed road and then trouble parking, I arrived at 8.10pm at Sam’s. I was surprised to find only three people waiting for me. Had the others got bored and left? Nope, it was just a low turnout, due to the extended bank holiday/half term, I suppose.

They’d already played Isle of Cats, which Sam won, and on my arrival they sat me down and began a game of High Score, Knizia’s reworking of his free print-and-play game Decathlon.

I was the early leader, but soon fall away. Joe had a late revival but steady Sam took the gold.

Sam 15

Joe 11

Katy 9

Andrew 7

Then Mel arrived, pushing up the number of attendees to a giddy five, and after a while of rejecting possible games due to having to relearn rules, we settled on Luzon Rails since we’d all played it.

Katy started in fine Katy-style, bidding high on pink shares because they were pink. Mel bought shares in red and green (three in total) early on and then didn’t feel the need to buy any more since they seemed to be doing very well. Joe, Sam and I shared ownership of three firms between us in the expectation that the other players would boost their value, with mixed results.

By round four it was intense enough that Sam and Katy both stood up. Once upon a time that meant an increase in concentration, but this time it was due to health issues (leg and back respectively). Such is life.

Katy ended the game in even finer Katy-style, bidding seven on a share even though she was told it’d only earn her six. Mel’s early eye for a bargain sealed the game for her.

Mel 37

Andrew 31

Joe 19

Katy 17

Sam 16

After this, Katy stayed true to her promise to go home early and the remaining four of us played Cross Clues.

As the words were dealt out Joe misread one of the clues as “Shropshire” which lead to a brief period of trying to work out what definition might suit phrases like “Shropshire laptop” (a paving slab?) or a “Shropshire ankle” (no idea but sounds painful).

Once we got started. Mel’s clues were next level, for example “Victorian” for “Ankle/surprise”. We slipped up on Joe’s clue for “Poos” which we thought was “Brown/surprise” and were so delighted that we didn’t realise that it was plural, which should’ve lead us to “brown/group”.

Disappointed at having run out of time and still got several wrong, we quickly set up again, persuading Mel to stay for one more. This time we were in much better form, speeding through the clues and finishing with a comfortable 25 out of 25.

With that, Mel and I left Joe and Sam to finish of the night. Joe beat Sam 21-20 on Wordpress

And then Joe won at Set & Match, 2-1.

Thanks all, have a lovely long weekend. Enjoy the Queen and I’ll see you next week.