Getting back into orbit

 I arrived at Sam’s to find Ian, Sam, Martin and Adam H having just finished their second game of Strike! This dice rolling arena game has been a firm favourite for the past few weeks, but I’ve yet to have a single game.

Joe also arrived shortly after me and, with all six expected participants, we began a game of Swat. This was new to Adam, and he was given a rules refresher. Five of us sat around with one hand face down on the table like a nervous seance while the sixth one dealt out the cards. When we were happy with what we’d seen, we’d slap the cardboard rectangle and make our claim. At one point me, Joe and Martin swatted just as a negative card was revealed and suddenly we were all very gentlemanly in our insistence that we can’t have been the quickest. I got zero in round one and never recovered. Joe was in the lead from round one and never looked back.

Joe 73

Martin 59

Ian 53

Adam 48

Sam 45

Andrew 31

Then Katy texted to say she’d be here at nine o’clock, which meant we had enough time for a game of So Clover. But what a vexatious game it was. After Joe went clear, we failed on Sam’s with a difficult decoy. Martin went clear despite using “formicarium” as a clue and then I failed miserably with a difficult clover, unwittingly two of my clues, “stink” and “fishy” overlapped, and on top of that a third clue “Pi” was a reference to Life of Pi (Circus/Raft) but only made sense if you’d got the other three clues first. Katy arrived mid-game and she was the first to mention the film. Ian and Adam also failed, despite Adam’s lovely clue of “Tarot” for “essence/forecast”.

24 out of 36

Then Katy arrived and we split into two groups. Ian, Adam and I went for Orbit while Martin, Joe, Sam and Katy played Gambler x Gamble! It seemed to go by very fast, with Joe reaching 14 coins in double quick time. Then the next time I looked, they were all in a position to come first, with Joe winning thanks to his instant win 4 gambler paying out.

Then they played Tiger & Dragon.

Martin 10

Joe 6

Katy 3

Sam 0

And Trendy

Sam 38

Katy 36

Joe 35

Martin 35

And finished off with three more games of Strike, with Katy, Joe and Martin winning one game each.

As for Orbit, I was Japan, Ian was China and Adam chose Russia (although he rejected their black pieces for his usual yellow). I was a bit rusty (like my spaceships, lol) on the rules but it was fine once we got going. 

As always, start with the planets in the astronomically correct place

I stayed entirely inside the asteroid belt for the whole game while Ian and Adam zipped around the solar system willy nilly. Adam quickly levelled up his feul and points statistics to great effect, while Ian slipped back to third after some drawing unlucky mission cards.

Adam 47

Andrew 23

Ian 21

And then, we were done. For once, with no work tomorrow, I stayed until the end. Orbit might have been a brave choice at nine in the evening, but I was in the mood for something more Euro-y so I was happy. Maybe one day I’ll play Strike.

Everything’s better with chips

I arrived bright and early this week, but still late enough to miss two games of Strike. Martin ended the second one in fine style with twice as many dice as he started.

Laura was expected soon, so we split into two groups. Adam H, Sam and Katy played the excitingly-titled Little Town which Martin said was “quite good, considering it’s a worker placement game.” Joe (hosting), Martin and myself played a short game of Narabi.

It’s an odd game, a co-op in which we have to arrange the numbered stones in front of us in ascending or descending order. Each of us had four cards in front of us and each card had a rule restricting how it could move on the back that only we could read but couldn’t discuss with the other players. If the game was supposed to evoke a sense of zen calm, then it succeeded. Maybe I was just tired, but it seemed to drift past quite serenely. We completed it after using only half the number of turns allotted to us.

Then Laura arrived and we changed from tranquil teamwork to mind-reading rivals in Gambler x Gamble! This Japanese game is hard to find, or at least it was until Joe picked it up this week for £12. Laura was introduced to the game but maybe Joe should’ve listening in too. At one point, when making a secret bid, he put his card face up and declared “Zero” which was either an audacious bluff or he’d forgotten the rules.

This time we did away with the game’s tiny plastic chips in favour of Joe’s genuine poker chips. This gave rise to someone uttering the title for this blog post. It was also ironic because, apart from some chocolatey biscuits that Katy handed round, no one brought any snacks at all.

As for Gambler x Gamble!, I won again. It was my turn and I needed any of my three gamblers, 2, 3 or 6, to pay out and then I’d hit the winning score of 15. Meanwhile, Martin had the instawin 4 card in front of him, so I needed to be careful. I can’t actually remember what I did, but it was brilliant and I ended up with 17 points for the win.

As for Little Town, all I know is that whenever I looked over, Adam seemed to picking up the last cubes of a particular resource.

Sam 56

Adam 51

Katy 49

Next we played Schrille Stille, a game “like no other,” promised Joe. It was six-player so Joe and Sam teamed up for this crazy game of music industry mayhem. In the game, we have to influence and also predict the Top 14 of a chart full of fictional artists, with each of us representing a record label. Our votes were given using a large cardboard CD which looked more like a rotary dial on an old telephone. Little wooden disks would be put into the little round holes and then those disks would be dropped into a contraption which could then release everyone’s disks for one particular artist at a time.

It’s all very clever from an engineering perspective, although at one point it did feel like every rule came with its own bespoke piece of equipment. And with six people voting for artists to rise or fall, it was hard to feel like you had any influence in the game. After round one, for example, I was miles in the lead and no one was more surprised than me.

But, like Stock, Aitken and Waterman all rolled into one, my star fell as quickly as it had risen. By round three, Martin was level with me and I scored only two points in the final round as Martin went past the 50 point mark that we’d set as the finishing line.

Laura had to leave mid-game so Sam left his partnership with Joe to take over her ailing record label and he oversaw a swift increase in revenue, taking it from last to second in the final round. Adam didn’t seem to like it and I’m inclined to agree. I had fun, but it was more of an activity than a game.

Martin 52

Laura/Sam 41

Joe/Sam 40

Katy 40

Andrew 37

Adam 32

Next we played So Clover as a nice warm down for those of us eyeing the clock. Sam and I went clear, with my clover being solved so quickly that I was actually a little disappointed. Martin also went clear, albeit after he was obliged to give us a clue. Katy took issue with “fireman,” insisting it should be “firefighter” and she even erased it until Martin objected, saying there was a reason for specifying gender. This led us to the word “big” as one of the correct answers, which I don’t think we’d have otherwise got.

The fastest ever clover?

I think we were wrong on Katy’s but then we somehow navigated Adam’s clover with the clue “Colonel” written on it. Eventually we settled for “Mustard/Pigeon” although we couldn’t think of a reason for Pigeon. Adam admitted afterwards that he couldn’t think of a clue for both words, so he just clued “Mustard” and hoped for the best.

Finally was Joe’s clover in which we got three tiles wrong. This was all the more appalling because we’d had it correct earlier on. The problem clue was “Sam” which we initially paired with “Root/Bike” because he likes the game Root and he rides a bike. But then someone noticed “screen/right” and that worked too because he’s a screenwriter. So we rearranged the tiles and sat back, anticipating congratulations, only to receive opprobrium instead. We went back to our earlier guess and finally got it right.

At first, everyone but Joe and Martin were making moves to leave, but in the end Katy was tempted by one last game of Piece o' Cake. Best decision she made all evening.

Katy 44

Martin 33

Joe 31

Thanks all for a special evening. Same time next week.

Gamers x Games!

 I walked into Steve and Anja’s house a little after eight to find myself immediately thrown into the opening round of 6nimmt. I’d been dealt in and, if I’d remained absence, would’ve gone Dirk until my arrival.  Before then, they (Anja, Adam H, Luther, Sam, Joe, Martin and Ian) had played Strike, which Adam had won.

As for 6nimmt, I thought I’d done okay in round one until I added up my points and found myself ten points adrift in last place, while Joe was the early leader. At the end of the second round (of three) the scores we surprisingly close, with a cluster of players behind new leader Adam on 24, 26, 29, 30, 30, 31, 32.

In the final round, Luther said his heart was beating fast. It was his first game at 6nimmt, I think, and we made sure to explain that the cards were mean to everyone, not just him. We needn’t have worried. While Ian collapsed, Luther went clear and he and I grabbed an unlikely win.

Luther 32

Andrew 32

Joe 34

Anja 37

Martin 42

Sam 43

Adam 45

Ian 64

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Anja, Adam and the newly arrived Steve played Tiger and Dragon, a Japanese game I still know nothing about apart from it having nice pieces.

Martin, Ian, Joe and I played a new Japanese game, Gambler x Gamble! In this simple yet cunning game, one player plays a numbered tile face up and the other three play theirs face down. Then all the numbers are revealed and added up. The trick is to guess/influence/predict that this total matches one of the gambler cards in front of you. If so, then that gambler pays out. More gamblers can be bought in order to increase your opportunities of winning and they can also be flipped to super mode, where they can win you more. First to 15 coins wins.

Easy, except if no gambler pays out, then that’s a Gambler’s Fumble and the chip leader(s) have to pay half of their money, rounded up, into a special fund which may be redistributed later. This means you don’t want to be in the lead for too long.

I won with a piece of deduction that I’m rather proud of. I wanted my 6 to pay out, Joe had a 9 and Martin’s and Ian’s highest was both 5. I began with a face up 2 and the other three put theirs face down. I was sure Joe would go high, trying to hit his nine, while Ian and Martin would do the opposite. I guessed Joe would play a 3 and the other two both zeroes. Therefore I paid a coin to adjust the total up by one.

I was right! My six gambler paid out, and I hit 15 coins for the win! I was so excited that I forgot to note down the other players scores.

While they finished off T&D, we sped through a game of Trendy, which is basically the game Whale Riders: The Card Game was based on (and was, itself, based on something else). Midway through the game, Martin put down a 3 card when Anja, across the room and still playing T&D, said “three”. We were surprised at such psychic ability and, keen to see if it continued, I put down a card: a 4. “Five,” said Adam. The moment was ruined.

We played twice

Martin 31

Andrew 28

Ian 16

Joe 14

And then

Joe 43

Andrew 42

Martin 34

Ian 32

As for Tiger And Dragon, Sam won one game and Adam won twice.

Then we reshuffled a little. Steve explained that their games collection is loosely divided into two groups: games that Steve usually wins and games that Anja usually wins. Amazingly, Thurn and Taxis was brought out at this late hour (almost ten o’clock) and Anja, Sam, Joe and Adam sat down to play. I preferred something lighter, so I joined Martin, Steve and Ian for a game of Piece o' Cake.

In this game an 11-segment pie/cake or various flavours is split into four by one player. The others take turns choosing a piece and then the splitting player takes what’s last.  Each flavour has a value that you’ll score if you have the most or join most of that flavour. Otherwise you can “eat” you cake/pie immediately and score a point per blob of cream on the slice.

The start of the game was postponed after Martin spilled a little beer on the game. Despite being a small amount of liquid, it somehow managed to get on every single piece.

Ian went big on Chocolate cake, with it’s 11-point value. He collected four early on, which seems like a loss since they had three blobs of cream each and could’ve been eaten for 12 points, but it certainly rendered everyone else’s chocolate cake valueless. I, on the other hand, went for lower scoring pieces and ate the rest. It was lovely.

Andrew 35

Steve 34

Martin 32

Ian 24

I left at this point, and Martin, Steve and Ian played Strike three times. Martin won twice but, when he emailed me, he couldn’t remember who won the third. Then they played High Score

Martin 17

Ian 13

Steve 11

As for late night game of Thurn and Taxis, I got a message from Sam at half past eleven with a photo and the scores.

Adam 26

Joe 15

Sam 11

Anja 3

Thanks for hosting Steve and Anja. See you all next week.

Six Sixteen

With Andrew one of a few late drop-outs, blogging duties fell to me (Sam) and unfortunately I missed the rousing opening of Strike!, Martin's new dice game, arriving only in time to see Adam T's triumph and Adam H's chagrin. The host was Joe, and arriving at the same time as me was Gareth. 

Now a six and destined no longer for any more arrivals, we set up another new Martin title, called King Up. Essentially a series of elections, several wannabe monarchs - the discs - are positioned at the bottom of the board, and on your turn you simply push one up to the next level; assuming there's room to do so - each level can hold four wannabes. Naturally everyone has their own agenda: six aspirational nobles you'd like to either be king/queen, or at least still in the court when the round ends. 

They might get jettisoned when you or someone else elevates them to the throne: as soon as soon as this happens, there's an election with everyone voting aye or nay: only a universal aye will keep them there, otherwise they're kicked out of court. 

The problem is that although you always keep your aye card, you only have two nays to spend: once they're gone, they're gone, and everyone being hesitant to spend them can mean you end up with a monarch nobody wanted. There are three rounds and when a monarch is declared, all nobles score according to their position: on the throne is ten points, further down the board becomes a more paltry return. Although Martin scored the same as Joe and Adam T, he lost on a tie-breaker:

Joe/Adam T share the throne: 52
Martin - scheming Salieri: 52
Adam H - influential lord: 50
Gareth - noted dignitary: 46
Sam - nodding yes man: 45

A fun game. We then split into groups of three, with Adam T and Martin about to get schooled by Gareth in Rumble Nation and Adam H and I inviting a similar experience from Joe. Both are fairly simple games, but deeper than they first appear. Rumble Nation takes place in two acts, with armies added to the board before its territories scored in ascending order, and winning a territory allows you to add reinforcements wherever you have adjacent forces. Gareth took advantage of the domino effect and won something like seven or eight of the twelve available, as Martin and Adam looked on in despair, and the latter's embryonic winning streak was cut brutally short:

Gareth 49

Martin 37

Adam T 16

Meanwhile Joe, despite protesting he had no idea what he was doing, was trouncing Adam H and I at Tiger & Dragon. The game is super-simple - there are a bunch of numbered tiles; eight 8's, seven 7s. six 6's and so on down to a single one. There are two wilds (the tiger and dragon) one for any odd and the other for any even. Everyone draws X amount of tiles and tries to shed them quicker than anyone else, by playing a tile as attack. If the next player can defend by playing a matching tile, they do so (unless they pass) and now it's their turn to attack. If you play attack and everyone passes back to you, you get to discard a tile face-down, and attack again. 

That's it. But critical is watching what's gone out already and gauging when to pass, when to play low and when to go high. Only the winner of a round scores and they get more points for going out with a high tile (in theory at least, easier to defend against) than a low one. The exception is the 1, with which you shoot the moon and instantly win the game; I'm guessing because although it's the best attack tile it's the worst defence tile. 

We played three times, and Joe won every single round!

Whilst Adam and I were reeling at the dextrous hands of The Berge, the others played Piece O Cake, which they may tell you about in the comments. All I know is that it's the precursor to New York Slice. Whatever happened getting there, it was a resurgent Adam T who finished the experience with the biggest slice of the points:

Adam 42

Martin 38

Gareth 35

While they were finishing that, we'd blasted through a couple of games of Strike! and I now comprehended it. The inside of the box is basically the arena for dice-chucking and you're trying to get matching numbers. A single die starts in the arena and on a turn you throw one die at a time in there. If you don't get a match, you can either keep going - the more dice there are, obviously the greater chance of a match - or pass. If you run out of dice, you're out, and if your turn arrives with nothing in the arena at all, you must throw all of your dice! Additionally, there's no 1s but instead crosses. Any crosses rolled are removed from the game. 

You've little decisions to make - basically, keep going or pass - but it's a lot of fun anyway. Surprising too how many of us managed to actually miss the arena (even the box, in Joe's case) and lose a precious die as a result. I won game one, and Joe game two, before we reconvened as a six and busted out So Clover. And what a triumph this was, thanks in part to the kind of smutty clueage we'd usually only see from Katy. Or Joe. Or Martin. Or Ian. Or me. Anyway, when we opened with 6/6 we felt satisfied. Then as we kept hitting sixes, we grew into optimistic, tense, excited, and finally as triumphant as one can after connecting mustard wand the way Adam did.

36/36! Joe wrote the score into the Legend of Legends or whatever it's called. Adam T had a drive home to think of, so left on a high note. Adam H was looking sleepy, but stayed on for a 5-player crack at Tiger & Dragon. It's not as good at it's maximum player count, as there's very few tiles not in play and the passing option feels less enticing. Adam H got his revenge on Joe though, winning in two rounds even though he was now professing to have no strategic idea what he was doing. 

Then we played Strike! again! Joe won the first game after Martin was out on a single roll, announcing with joyous despair that it was his most fleeting involvement in a game ever. Then Gareth and Adam butted the three of us out to perform an epic, dramatic, swinging ding-dong finale as momentum swung about like a pendulum on time-lapse. Gareth's rolling was preposterous, but in the end Adam nabbed the win and like his namesake, went out on a giddy high. Gareth retired as well and myself, Joe and Martin tried out Lettertricks, where you win tricks to put together letters to then make a word. I wasn't bowled over by the competitive game: even playing badly (as I no doubt did) I ended up with a Z and an L. Joe fared a little better, making a three-letter word (I think) but Martin had multiple letters and trounced us partly by virtue of having lots of late-alphabet letter cards, if I recall. But apparently it's more suited to four.

We tried the co-op version, where you collaborate to spell words as you play, hampered by both a lack of vowels and having to follow suit. We succeeded in winning (scoring more than the required 12 words) but to me it felt like an unsuccessful cross of Letterpress and and The Crew. Maybe because I was getting rather tired though, and I bowed out, leaving Joe and Martin to finish the evening with a head to head of Hanamikoji. Martin won the sixteenth game of an action-packed night!