Bum Puppet

Today, the postman had pushed a whole load of mail through my letterbox for an entirely different house. Luckily, it was a house on Joe's street and so I set off to games with a little more intent than usual. So much so that I didn't notice Katy's other half, Rob, until I'd gone past and he'd said hello.

I arrived at Joe's where the host was already entertaining Adam T, Sam, Katy, Ian and Martin. Adam H got here soon after and we sorted out chairs and seating arrangements. I said that this was pointless since we'd surely swap places for games but it turned out we didn't need to. Half the table played the new Martin Wallace while the other half played a new Knizia. Wallace versus Knizia! What an occasion!

Sam, Adam T, Ian and Katy played Via Nebula, which seemed to be about clearing fog. But I didn't follow it much after Katy said “Let's play nice.”

And she did!

Katy 23

Ian 22

Adam 20

Sam 16

Sam said he liked it, despite “getting rinsed.”

Meanwhile, Martin, Joe, Adam T and I played Cascadero. When introducing it, Martin dismissively said it was some bullshit about kings but then we insisted that we needed to know the backstory and insisted he read it out. And he did. In character.

I can't remember it, though, except that we were ministers of industry, agriculture, textiles and money or something. The idea of the game is to put your envoys on the board so that they link up cities and push cubes up several bonus tracks to trigger extra moves/more points. Each minister has a particular bonus track that they must complete otherwise, in fine Knizia style, you are disqualified.

During this game, Joe pondered that whenever he saw a bonus track, he always wanted to bump up it. This was deliberately misheard fro comedy effect and gave us this week's blog title.

It was fine. I think we were far less shitty to each other than we could have been. Especially to Martin who got a juicy ten point bonus but Adam always seemed to be at his shoulder.

Although the end of the game was made notably more exciting by Joe's cat who decided to sit on Adam's lap and stare at the game as if it were easy prey just waiting for a pounce.

Martin 49

Adam T 44

Andrew 29

Joe 29 (but an incomplete bonus track)

It was good, although an odd ending. Options were sparse. Martin couldn't finish the game by reaching 50 points and we eventually ended when Adam ran out of meeples.

While we finished, the others played Little Tavern, with a little variant where they read out the flavour text on the card they drew and the others had to guess if they were goblin/witch/elf etc.

Ian 26

Sam 19

Katy 19

Adam H 19

Then, amazingly, Lords of Vegas was brought to the table! At 9.15! But it was chosen because it was Katy's last games night for a month, and they seeded the game over card a little earlier in the deck than normal, to shorten the game. 

Ian explained the rules to Adam T and I was a little surprised to see the dice-averse Adam H as one of the participants. “Do you usually win?” asked Adam T, seeing Katy’s excitement at playing. She insisted she didn’t (which, in fairness, is true) but next time I looked over, Katy had a very early three-tile casino on the Strip.

We played Spectral, a deduction game in which players secretly look at cards (in a 4x4 grid) and note the clues revealed in order to deduce where the most jewels may be. And to avoid the demons. It was okay. Sam seemed to struggle, although he said he felt confident heading into the closing stages, while I was confident of where to avoid but didn’t pick up enough gems to make an attempt on the lead.

Joe 48

Martin 38

Sam 27

Andrew 24

In Vegas, meanwhile, Adam paid $40m to sprawl into a new square and, in doing so, took over a seven-tile casino on the strip. Ian, meanwhile, was stuck on 3 points while Adam H had 12, Katy 16 and Adam T was on 20. His exclamations over disdain as his luck echoed around the room. Meanwhile, Adam H sprawled into a new plot and got himself a new seven-tile casino for “only” $40m.

After Spectral, we played Cabanga. Martin told me it was fun because you got to say “Cabanga” and I pointed out I could do that anyway. But it’s all about context, and saying “cabanga” meaning “fuck you” was more fun than just blurting it out like an idiot. 

Sam 4

Martin 4

Andrew 6

Joe 7

We only played two of the regulation three rounds because Lords of Vegas ended, with a possible lowest score for Ian.

Katy 44

Adam T 32

Adam H 26

Ian 6

The two Adams left and we ended on So Clover. With six of us, there was the chance of a legendary 36 out of 36. Joe actually exercised the rarely used rule of being able to reset your clover, after he admitted to just staring at “magnascope.” We began well, although we had a few close calls. Ian, in particular, had a mean decoy with “rifle” that fitted his clue of “killer” perfectly until we reconsidered that “white/colour” wasn’t a good fit for “wedding”.

With five out of five, it was all down to Joe, but alas it wasn’t to be. Despite his second chance at getting some workable words, we failed twice to get his clover right.

33 out of 36

No fame for us tonight. But lots of fun.  Thanks guys.

Psychic Failures

I was a little uneasy at arriving early at Joe’s this Tuesday, so I was glad when Ian cycled up at about the same time. And I needn’t have worried at all since Joe had already started the evening with a little Martini to keep him company. The bigger Martin(i) would be along soon, after Katy and Sam arrived, each with their own comments about the fine weather. Finally Adam H got here and, with no word from a potential Anja, we started gaming.

Since Katy wanted something gentle, we began with Take It Easy. Joe’s and Sam’s copies were used to allow all seven of us to compete, and Joe was caller. Today’s theme was Steely Dan songs, with Steely Dan on the stereo. For the atmos, you know. There was the usual agony and elation (mostly agony) and it ended with Adam winning a pretty close game.

Adam 209

Martin 190

Joe 184

Andrew 182

Katy 178

Sam 158

Ian 150

Then we split into two. Katy was still in the market for gentle games and was tempted to join Martin and Joe in a game of Renature. Because she likes animals.

Ian, Sam, Adam and I chose Ra over Hansa Teutonica (on the toss of a coin) and set out Joe’s luxurious version, complete with underwhelming round counter, which is about the size of a scrabble tile and really could have been omitted.

In round one, Ian was last player standing but lost out when the Ra track ended before he could sweep up everything available. Adam was in the same position in round two but he had four chances to pull Ra tiles, so he was fine. In round three, Adam was out first saying he thought he’d be last. I said he was crazy, thanks to this buildings, but turns out he was right. I had a good round two and pretty much had the same tiles in front of me at the end of the game, too.

Andrew 44

Sam 26

Ian 25

Adam 19

I went to the toilet and came back to find Misfit already out of its box. It was a typically crazy game. Adam began with a vertical column and it got worse from that. Ian had the first collapse, clearing the structure from the table entirely.

Sam got a text just as he was placing a piece and almost ruined his turn. Then Ian got the yips just as he was adding to an already impossible structure and then Adam had a tap-in to win the game. Sam, too, finished that round. Still not sure if that’s a tie.

Adam wins!

Renature also ended at this point, with Katy ruefully pondering if sitting "cuntside" of Martin was actually a benefit.

Joe 93

Martin 79

Katy 59

And with that, I was done. Still tired from my new job, I bailed early at only 9.30. Still had a great time though.

I’ll hand over to Sam to continue the blog…

*

We were still going strong when Andrew left and at Martin's insistence, played Cabanga. Luckily for all of us - especially Martin - Cabanga was good fun, a Nimmt-esque game of shedding cards as quickly as you can without getting 'Cabanga-ed' when others dump cards on you. I'd explain the rules but I'd forgotten I was meant to be finishing the blog (sorry Andrew/everyone) but it was fun and funny.

Ian won on the first round with zero points, followed by me, Joe, Adam and Katy. Martin was last with a whopping 22 - points are bad. Then Adam left and we played Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go To The Ghost Town. The rules are short and sweet but I forgot them anyway. Martin delivered a pizza and won!

I think we played Cabanga again - Joe won - before polishing off the night with the classic closer of So Clover, bringing in a reasonable but not amazing 16/24

Fun! Thanks all. And sorry for late reportage. 

Indian Winter

Last night three of us - Ian, Chris, and myself - faced off across the board of Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India 1290-1398. This is a GMT game but flies in the face of GMT's standard output in terms of accessibility and brevity: I taught it in 15 minutes and we finished in a shade over 2 hours. 

The game is a fight for power across the provinces that all begin the game under the control of the Delhi Sultanate, played by Ian. Chris (Vijayanagara, yellow) and I (Bahmani, blue) are the upstart empires sensing weakness and looking to gain control for ourselves. Ian begins the game cash rich and in command of every province, meaning his victory marker currently sits at 18 compared to mine and Chris' zero. We're at peace, meaning all the provinces are tributaries, happily - or begrudgingly - deferring to the Sultanate's power and numerous troops. But we're scheming. 

Ian doesn't just have the Vijayanagara and Bahmani to worry about though - from the north, Mongols periodically invade, making it as far as Delhi - Ian's capital - and generally getting in his shit. 

It works like this: each round a card is flipped denoting turn order and offering an event. One by one we decide whether to take the event (a special action, for one player only) do a command & decree (two distinct actions, again for just one player) or a limited command/pass (limited action/get some cash). The catch is that command & decree and about half the events make you ineligible for the next round, essentially sacrificing a turn for jam now. 

That's as complicated as it gets: the actions are largely get some dudes on the board, move them around, attack each other and - for Chris and I - rebel against the Sultanate's rule, wrestling a province from Ian's grasp. Doing so pushes our victory marker up the track, and drags his down. Other actions get you cash and cavalry, which are dead handy in combat. 

Chris and I also have an influence track to ponder: you can feasibly stay at zero influence for the whole game, but increasing it not only makes certain commands and decrees more powerful, it also affects the victory point marker for the Vijayanagara / Bahmani. Influence entices us away from the unspoken - or often spoken - agreement to attack Ian: if we manage to knock each other out of a province, our influence goes up and the other empire's decreases. 

Combat is simple too: attacker rolls four dice and defender two: each side does damage for rolls that match or are less-than units-present. So if you have six units, all your rolls will be hits! The aforementioned cavalry come into play here: used to 'charge' and decrease a die value by one, or 'screen' and remove an opponent's hit. 

Essentially it's a game of shenanigans: more reactive and tactical than beholden to long-term strategising. Power ebbs and flows and there's a palpable bit of leader-bashing, although the Sultanate cannot attack the Vijayanagara and Bahmani empires unless they have rebelled in that province, meaning they have to march past 'obedient' smirking Amirs and Rajas to reach their more brazen co-conspirators.

The other empires start off focused on the Sultanate, but late-game are just as likely to be attacking each other, using special decrees like Conspire and Compel to engineer treachery amongst the ranks of their opponents. Which is handy for Delhi as the game-end is triggered by the Mongols launching a huge invasion on the capital, meaning the Sultanate player has a kind of pub-carpark finale where they can gain as many as three points - a big swing - or lose up to three, depending on how many Mongols remaining in Delhi after the battle. Ian had prepared well and managed to defeat them all, giving him the maximum points haul. But the abrupt ending had favoured me and I finished a point ahead of him!

Sam 11
Ian 10
Chris 7

We all liked this. It has an epic feel but moves at a reasonable clip, and I think familiarity would bring the play-time down further. The asymmetry is noticeable but not at Root-levels of density, and you sit out far fewer rounds than standard COIN games in the 'eligible' stakes. What's more it finishes early enough to play Little Tavern (Chris won) and So Clover (twice) where Ian's clover appeared to be solvable with a single card:

Amazing. Even more amazingly, we cracked this one and scored 18 on our first attempt, before turning in a far less impressive 13 in our second. 

Synergies

Another rainy day at least had the promise of games at the end of it. I arrived at Joe's early and to kick off the evening we combined dishwasher duties with some quick fire questions from League of the Lexicon, discovering that the phrase rise and shine comes from a plea to the sun. We were maybe hoping for something more idiosyncratic, involving shoes, but reality yet again disappointed. Then things perked up again as Katy, Ian and Adam T all arrived. Joe started the evening in earnest by prompting a game of Mind Meld, which is basically Medium without the cards: two people volunteer random words and then after the 3-2-1 countdown, announce them: Katy and I began with book and shirt. Then the first pair of players to think of a connecting word put their hands up, and we repeat the process until a pair of players finally say the same word. 

Often we floundered around with synonym adjacent words, ending up with for example high-vis and traffic light. But it was fun. Then Adam H arrived and we began in even more earnest with Challengers Beach Cup. 

This is like Challengers, only more so. New to me but similar enough that Adam's rules refresher contained few surprises. We added some A cards to our starter sets and were off, with the early runners seeming to be Joe and the Adams. Katy and I found solace in our shared sequence of defeats - at least until she beat me. Ian muddled along mid-table whilst the Adams racked up what seemed like endless victories, as Joe came a cropper against me. Katy demanded a photo of these cards, I don't remember why now. I was busy crying into my gin. 

As the peloton fell away - and Martin arrived - the Adams faced off in the grand finale. "Are we supposed to be paying attention?" said Katy. I missed drama too, but I was in the loo and only discovered that 'Adam won' when I returned. I briefly wondered which Adam until the Hillmann variety said the whole thing was best forgotten.

Adam T - champion!

Adam H - runner-up

Ian and Joe - 23 fans

Katy - 22 fans

Sam - 9 fans

We split into two groups with Joe dropping his new trick-taker 9 Lives on the table, from Taiki Shinzawa, who brought us American Bookshop, Maskmen and Big Top. Martin Katy and Adam T jumped at the chance, leaving the three of us with choices. We looked in a mysterious box of Joe's that contained cards and a cloth bag before settling on Comet. 

In this game we're trying to rescue various animals by steering them to the safety of a cavern before the comet hits (which is the end of the game). It's driven by cards that can be played either as an animal, or discarded for movement - the potentially joyful caveat being you can skip over any opponent animals in your way - a kind of reverse El Dorado. Once an animal is rescued, it offers a special power. 

It's a reasonably interactive game in a kind of passive-aggressive way, as we hopped over each other and leached powers. And the primal beaver raised a juvenile snigger from the players of 9 Lives...

...which had attracted the attention of Spooky, who seemed to yearn Martin's lap but couldn't bring herself to attempt the leap between chairs. 

As for Comet, from straightforward beginnings it does get rather thinky at times, with the cards offering various options. Adam's love of optimisation meant that he found it somewhat inscrutable, even though he denied his yawning had anything to do with the game. The others ended 9 Lives with Adam yet again triumphant.

Adam T 9

Joe 7

Martin and Katy -1 each (although Katy insisted they scored zero)

Apart from some occasional profanity I'm afraid I missed the ins and outs of the latest trick-taker with a twist, but would like to try it soon. They began playing Scout...

... as we approached the endgame of Comet. 

When the Comet card arrives we can refill our hands but that's it, no further 'resting' to gain cards. Adam wrapped up what we felt might be a win as Ian and I realised our last animals were going to perish in a horrible fireball. But as it turned out, I'd done enough to defy Explainer's Curse:

Sam 40

Adam 38

Ian 23

A tired Ian said his farewells as the Scout game wrapped up halfway through, with Martin taking what they called 'half a win'. "But I only came for half the evening!" he protested. I suggested it was a quarter-win in that case. But whatever fraction you care to name, it ended with him in pole. 

Adam H suggested So Clover and there was no demurring - at least, not until we saw our words. In what was a first for me, I pointed out a rule that we'd missed: if we can't settle on where the cards should go, the player to the left of the 'spectator' (whose Clover it is) gets the deciding vote. Katy insisted we play it, and Martin insisted that we always agree in the end. "No we don't" said Katy. The rule was implemented - kind of. We kicked off with Katy's Clover and discovered all the cards matched all the clues, scoring 3. Then on my clover - apparently - none of the words matched any of the clues, although they did eventually score a perfect 6, and I subsequently explained that Belgium is on a planet. Martin's clue of Gegen fortunately made sense to Adam H and I - being football fans - and an argument broke out about what an 'evening machine' might be, with Joe and Martin volunteering TV and vibrator as examples that Katy rejected. "A vibrator is a machine!" someone insisted. Fortunately our score had already determined this scene would not go into the record of legends. 

After Joe pointed out that Stuart Hall is a 'famous molester' and we cracked Adam's cheesestring clue, it ended up a not-so-disastrous 29/36. Good work!

I was up for another crack but the time was well past 11 and we all had homes to go to, so swept ourselves back into the still-rainy night, until next time...