Fish Thieves on the Shrinking Sea

I arrived at Sam’s at 8 o’clock for my first games night in three weeks and found Joe, Katy, Martin, Ian, Adam H and, of course, Sam already in attendance.

I’d missed a game of Cross Clues (23 out of 25) and Prey Another Day (Ian won). 

We split into two groups. I joined the gang of four and played Maldivia, a new game with the gimmick of a cloth board that slowly folds up during the game, making the play area smaller. The game concerned guiding your ship around the sea, picking up fish and delivering them to traders at the edge of the board. There’s a certain amount of dickishness, in that you can steal from other players, change the direction they’re going or cause the sea to get smaller which might lose them a fish from their boat or cover up a shoal of fish they were heading towards or remove a trader that someone wanted.

It was surprisingly dickish, especially as the board got smaller and it became impossible not to bump into each other.

This close-quarters combat didn’t sit well with Katy who lapsed into a surly mood. I can’t honestly say I was having enormous fun either, as the constant changing of the board/traders made it hard to plan ahead. Mind you, I didn’t exactly embrace the notion of exploring the wide blue ocean as I spent the first few rounds going back and forth along a single row picking up fish and then trading them.

Sam 13

Martin 11

Andrew 9

Katy 8

The other group of Ian, Joe and Adam played Tajuto – a rematch between the same players of 5th Oct. Back then it ended with a narrow win for Adam just ahead of Ian. This time Ian was victor.

Ian 15

Joe 13

Adam 11

The games ended at about the same time and so we rearranged our seating into two new groups. Obviously in a racey mood, Adam suggested Quest for El Dorado or Race for the Ganges and so Sam, Katy and he played Quest. I was at the far end of the table so I missed most of the nuances of their strategies. 

Everyone, however, noticed the surliness lifting from Katy as she played. By the end she even offered Sam a "joint second place" after Adam ended the game but Sam had to point out that technically she was nearest to El Dorado.

M

Adam

Katy

Sam

But the surliness didn't leave us completely as it settled over Martin during the opening rounds of our game, Mille Fiori. Ian said he wasn't in the mood for learning new rules so he was amenable to the return of this recent favourite.

And, indeed, he sped off into a sizable early lead. But then he became stuck with a selection of poor cards. His misfortune was to have his cards handed to him by Martin ("sitting cuntside of Martin," as Katy put it). Joe looked to have it all tied up mid game with a handsome lead but then Martin put together four extra turns for a mega move that pushed him into contention and, before long, the lead. Now he was devoid of surliness, and Ian monopolized it for the rest of the game.

As for me, I bossed the market such that by the end I was getting at least ten points almost every turn and the occasional extra go. It kept me competitive, even briefly squeaking into the lead in the final round. But not for long.

Martin 206

Joe 203

Andrew 203

Ian 151

And again, we finished at similar times. Whopper flavoured Doritos were poured into a bowl and generally greeted with a mixture of disgust and delight, often from the same people. The bowl was emptied pretty quickly.

With a number of us promising to leave after the next game, we played Herd Mentality together. This game plays up to 20, apparently, although there's only space for six players on its tiny score pad.

In this game we discovered that most of us preferred tea to coffee, we mostly think of McDonald's as the worst fast food chain (my odium for Subway spoilt our best chance for a clean sweep) and Biltzen is the most memorable non-Rudolf reindeer.

We had to cancel one round when Joe couldn't think of an animal without a tail and the hinting eventually morphed into reminding him that humans are animals. I was glad this round was abandoned since I'd written Manx Cat. There was also controversy in the “Job beginning with B” round when Martin said “Barrister” and Katy matched with him, but when we saw her piece of paper, she’d actually written “barrista” as in the coffee-shop employee. She insisted she’d meant the lawyer-type person, but we found it odd.

I had the scores on a separate piece of paper that I lost but I’m sure Sam won and Adam and I came joint last.

Then Ian, Katy, Adam and I left. Joe, Martin and Sam played a game of Sea Salt and Paper. A full game, not just a few rounds as a filler.

Martin 37

Sam 30

Joe 19

And then they finished with So Clover, getting a perfect 18 out of 18! Congrats.

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

Just 11

Steve, Anja and Louie were our hosts last night, and joining them around the table were Ian, Gareth, Adam H, Martin and myself (Sam). Adam T was hopeful of coming but couldn't make it in the end, thankfully not down to me giving him the wrong address. While Anja was completing a job application/getting Lennon settled, we kicked off with Just One. 

And although Martin did some mild cheating, we started pretty well, hitting the marks consistently until too many duplicate clues left Gareth with an uphill task to identify Google, with only the clues Browser and Lens. Perhaps sensing his despair, Molly came to offer comfort. 

But Molly stuck to the rules giving no clues - my photo almost gave it away - and we lost a point. Then somewhere down the line we lost another, leaving us with 11/13, fatefully correlating with the correct address I hadn't sent Adam to. With Anja imminent, we split into two groups playing two short games: whilst Louie, Steve and I played Order Overload: Cafe, Martin introduced the others to Prey Another Day. 

Order Overload: Cafe is all about memory: each round, a bunch of orders are read out and then the order cards are dealt out to the players. Then the co-operative goal is to go around the table and call out the orders you don't have in your hand, and - assuming the orders exist - they get discarded. This continues until any one player is out of cards, meaning the level is complete! On Level 1 this is dead easy, the starting player just needs to remember one of the other orders. But every level the orders multiply, meaning by the time we reach level 6 there are no less than eighteen orders, including the bizarre Iced Coffee with No Ice. 

Another catch is that  if you call a non-existent order - which we all managed to do - you can't call orders any more in that round but can only answer them. Despite Louie's impressive recall, we stalled at level 6. Steve's face was a picture of agony, and he ruminated that he didn't have any truck with fun. 

At the other end of the table there was a similar boisterousness but more at each other and less at our failing brains. Ian won the first game with 6 points, (Martin 4, Gareth and Adam 2 each) then Adam took the second game, which Anja also played in:

Adam 5

Gareth 4

Ian, Martin, Anja 3 each

Not having Andrew's impressive table-wide vision or note-taking habit, I confess I was none the wiser to Prey Another Day at this point, other than Adam insisting it was a game of skill, in a tone that suggested perhaps it wasn't. Who knows? He did win. 

Louie now made his reluctant way to bed - along the floor - and we briefly flirted with Quantum + Noli (3 and 4) before settling on Hansa Teutonica and Aristocracy (4 and 3). 

I was excited to get Hansa played again and pleased for Gareth who had tentatively mooted it more than once in recent weeks. However my pleasure for Gareth was to slowly evaporate, as he took route-building advantage of us repeatedly, by getting in our Teutonic shit. Admittedly he wasn't alone, as this sabotage soon became a table-wide affair. I was so wrapped up in it I forgot to take any pictures of Aristocracy, sorry. That ended before we knew it:

Martin 71

Ian 66

Adam 58 

And also before we knew it, Ian and Adam were out the door - the evening had flown by. Hansa Teutonica, despite always making you feel like you want to do more than you can and each decision a minor agony, also sped by. I pushed Anja over the finish line before anyone could take any more turns, but although it kept me in third ahead of Steve, it wasn't enough to stop Gareth's impressive haul of networking points:

Gareth 42

Anja 35

Sam 25

Steve 21

Clearly Gareth has some kind Martin/Babylonia type knack for HT, and needs to be policed. 

The remainder of us fancied 'one more' game, so Martin brought out Prey Another Day again.

He talked us through the rules, which are like Citadels role-calling mechanic crossed with a competitive version of The Mind. Everyone has a set of (the same) cards and secretly chooses one, before all are called and revealed, starting with the Bear (1) and working up through the numbers - but down through seniority - to the lowly Mouse (5). If more than one person selected the same animal, nothing happens. But if you're the only person to select, say, the Wolf, you can announce which animal you're hunting, and eliminate any players who chose that animal. 

So players are eliminated - or not - until either there's only one player left (2 points!) or every left standing has played three cards, in which case the player with the highest collective value of their animal trio wins: ie, at this point the apex predator Bear is a damn sight less useful. 

Steve had a shocking game, thrice eliminated through hunting and scoring nothing. "That was fun" he said, in the manner of a man leaving the waterboard room.

Gareth 6

Anja 4

Martin 2

Sam 1

Steve 0 

"I could have had an extra 20 minutes sleep" he added, staring accusingly at the table. Nonetheless, he agreed to a rematch. This time it was Martin's turn to be serially dicked over, although he managed to avoid a zero. It came down to Anja and I poised for a win, but it was Anja who pounced:

Anja 6

Gareth and Sam 5

Steve 4 

Martin 2

And with that another marvellous Tuesday came to a close. Thanks all!

Squid Games

Six doughty gamers assembled around the table last night - Gareth and Martin were first to arrive, followed by Joe, Ian and finally Katy. We kicked things off with My Gold Mine, an Incan-Gold-esque escapade of trying to make out of the mine with the most gold and not be dead. On your turn you can either move towards the exit, or stay where you are and grab some gold; the catch being that doing so may provoke the ire - and movement - of the dragon, who will roast you its fiery flames if you're caught, like it's been reading the Daily Mail its entire life.

Some movement cards allow you to swap places with someone. I was discouraged from doing this and praised when I took Katy's advice. She then praised Gareth for swapping places with me! I had won round one, I suppose, and put a target on my back. The game was mainly notable for these dick moves and Joe despairing at everyone else referring to the exit direction as 'forward' - he explained it's obviously backwards because we were returning the way we came in. But are we? Other rationales were discussed. 

Maybe we should have paid more attention to Joe, even if his talk of being roasting was conjuring some unsolicited images in our heads:

Joe 6

Gareth/Sam 4 each

Ian 2

Katy/Martin 0

We split into two gangs of three, with Mille Fiori  set up one end of the table (Martin, Katy, Ian) and Calimala the other. One game involved passing cards and swearing, the other was a weird mash up of area majorities, token activations, and silk. 

Calimala's USP is that each turn you take an action, but if someone took it before you at any point in the game, they get to do so again as well. The actions are generating resources, using them to build infrastructure, or shipping silk to far off destinations. Whenever an action is taken a fourth time a scoring round is triggered, meaning the game starts off sedately but escalates into an every-turn-scores display. I thoroughly enjoy that mechanic and the manic pace it gives rise to, but it's not an easy one to jump into from a strategic perspective, and Joe confessed to being bamboozled by it. "I thought it was about calamari" he rued, leading to the post title. 

Despite that however, he did enough to ultimately draw on points with Gareth, who claimed the win on the tiebreaker of council seats. I was some way behind!

Gareth 35

Joe 35

Sam 28

They'd finished Mille Fiori and Ian's romance with the game continues to endure:

Ian 208

Katy 175

Martin 165

And also reversed their positions in Gang of Dice:

Martin 96

Katy 38

Ian 27

We shuffled seats with Joe, Katy and Martin setting up Tajuto and myself Gareth and Ian embracing Quantum. I confess I lost track of the meditative bag-plunging drama at the other end of the table as Quantum developed into an epic. Things didn't look promising for Gareth and I when Ian got a cube down on his first two turns. Moreover, he picked up beautifully synergising cards that allowed him to tweak resource and dominance in either direction, like a madman with a nuclear etch-a-sketch. 

He needed stopping. 

Somewhere in the stopping-of-Ian, we managed to eke our way forwards as well, slowly catching him up and placing the game into a fragile state where all of us were poised on a single cube for the win. Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Tajuto continued apace, complete with what now looks like a face-pulling contest amongst the fun-loving monks.

Ian kept engineering himself into one-turn-to-win conditions, cooking up a seemingly-imminent victory, and Gareth and I kept shitting in his pie. We hampered him with attacks and when that didn't work, I sabotaged him by moving one of his cubes into the planet he was ready to win with, meaning he now needed to migrate elsewhere.

It was a dramatic and ding-dong battle, and I managed to sneak the win courtesy of a bit of guerrilla tactics and a couple of spawny dice rolls!

Sam - 0 cubes

Ian and Gareth - 1 cube left

With everything in cosmic balance on Tajuto, they wrapped up at the same time. Joe proved to be best at monking:

Joe 18

Katy 16

Martin 14

And although I waved my new purchase Cafe Order Overload around hopefully, we elected to finish the night off with the classic that is So Clover. And it was so clovery, as Martin and my clovers kicked us off with a couple of six-pointers and we followed that with Joe's, which was nearly a car crash until we spotted some links we'd missed. We did less well on Katy's, surged back with Ian's and then Gareth revealed he'd ignored our demands he not make up words when we saw he'd written Margarglerita and Mashhhhhh on his clover. For shame, Gareth!

On the other hand, they were damn fine clues and we got all his clover leaves immediately. And then everyone left immediately, as another fine Tuesday came to a close.

Pharoah killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est?

 For the first time in years, I was first to arrive at Joe’s. I sat in the kitchen, anticipating playing one of those short little games that I usually interrupt on my arrival. Martin, Ian and Laura came in almost simultaneously but instead of playing, we chatted. Joe anguished over his new speaker not connecting properly, and some of his distress centered around the fact that he shouldn’t be this distressed about it.

Adam H and Katy arrived and now we were all present we began.

Adam, Joe and Ian played Knizia's temple building game, Tajuto while Laura, Katy, Martin and I chose Noli. Despite worries that it might be too loud with Katy playing, we promised to keep the noise down. I assured Laura of its simplicity - "there are only three rules," I insisted.

I started well. In the first round I split my 9 coins into three piles of three and each one succeeded. That, it transpired, was the high watermark of my game. Katy and Martin both overtook me on towers and then Katy persuaded Laura to remove one of Martin's two boats instead of one of her three, insisting that Martin was the one to attack.

.Katy's plan (if it was a plan) worked better than she could've imagined as she won lots of cash in the next race and built the fourth and fifth parts of her tower. After that, it was a bit of a victory parade until the end.

Katy 6

Martin 3

Laura 1

Andrew 1

With Tajuto still midgame, we played a quick Harvest. This is another game of ruining other players' chances and there seemed to be a little meta gaming hangover from Noli as Katy received more than her fair share of negatives.

Martin 140

Andrew 110

Laura 50

Katy 40

As Tajuto wound to a close, we finished off a quick one-hand-only game of Sea Salt and Paper with the extension (a few extra cards) “Extra Salt.” It was brief and I was poised to win until Martin stole one of my octopuses.

Martin 8

Laura 6

Katy 5

Andrew 4

Then Tajuto ended and a close finish – the final placings decided only on the final turn.

Adam 8

Ian 7

Joe 4

Then there was a brief reshuffling of chairs and groups before we reformed as Joe, Laura, Ian and I playing Ra (Luxury Ra, of course) while Katy, Martin and Adam turned their back on opulence and played the sparse, clip-art themed Muscat.

Lots of pointing in Muscat

I don’t know anything about Muscat except for something to do with turning elephants in burning sticks.

Adam 42

Katy 18

Martin 17

As for Ra, just like Noli, I started quite well. I collected lots of Nile tiles and then cleverly used my God to pick up a lone Flood tile so that they’d score. I was pleased with myself until loads of Flood tiles came out in the first epoch. I could’ve kept that God tile for something rarer, like a Civ tile.

Then, in rounds two and three, Floods all but vanished. My niles shrivelled up and died. Everyone else went for monuments. Ian hung on to his 13-tile for about two-thirds of the game. Ian ended the game alone on the auction track, although the round was almost over and he filled up the track with tiles. But only one Ra tile would end the round and we were begging him to stop. Which he did, and he scored ten points from just those tiles.

Turns out he should’ve kept going after all

Joe 40

Ian 36

Laura 31

Andrew 30

Joe maintains his vice-like grip on this game.

And then Me, Katy and Adam left. The rest stayed for what might have been a round of So Clover but who knows.

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