Charlie Brown and Alan Bennett fighting over designer labels

 Walking along Joe’s street, ambling along the middle of the road like it was still the lockdown, I noticed a figure passing by on the pavement. I recognised him as Martin and so I picked up my speed to catch up with him. To no avail - his walking pace being far faster than mine - and I arrived at Joe’s behind him, having to jog the last few feet to make sure I got there by the time Joe answered the door.

Inside we were four, and while we awaited news of Laura (“I’m in the car!”) and Adam H (“I’m not going to make it”) we played a quick Agent Avenue: a cross between Ludo and Liar Dice. A team puts down two cards: one face up and one face down. The opponents choose which they’ll take: the safe bet they can see or take a risk with the hidden one.

Sam and I managed to get two Codebreakers in front of us - a third would instantly win us the game and we manipulate that to our advantage: twice we offer a Codebreaker as the face up card, meaning Martin and Joe had to take it, allowing us whatever was face down. We did this twice, and secured a win.

Sam & Andrew - won

Joe & Martin - lost

Then Laura arrived, carrying a water flask full of red wine that, throughout the evening, she would repeatedly kick over when she got up from her chair.

We started as a quintet playing Champions. It's a very silly game in which the players write the names of eight people at random. These names then compete against each other in a tournament of absurd categories. The winner being decided by the players voting.

You score points for (a) being in the majority of voters and (b) predicting the overall winner. Sam was rather frustrated by the piecemeal rules explanation from Martin, nor even realising there were two rounds until after he'd wiped his player-board clean.

Topically, we ended up with Kamala Harris against Donald Trump competing over who would distil their own vodka. Harris won. Which would be the high point of her evening, as we all found out the next morning.

Joe went through the first round guessing everything right and round two was punctuated by his chuckling as he got another one right. Only in the second final did his luck/skill run out, but he was too far ahead by then anyway.  By contrast, Martin’s second round was a disaster, getting him only five points.

Joe 23

Andrew 21

Sam 20

Laura 15

Martin 14

The next game featured more silliness: Magical Athlete, with its boring board and player pieces that don't quite fit together properly. We chose our four athletes with their special powers and then raced four times.  I won the first with Cupid (move forward 5 if a male and female character share a space) but then had one of my three points stolen by Laura’s character. This, it turned out, was the last that either of us troubled the scoreboard. 

At the end of race 2, Joe and Sam were both poised on the last square before the finish line and Sam managed to get over it first. Race three saw Martin first and Sam second. Round four was, quite literally, a procession as Sam strode to his second win with a character that moves forwards five spaces each time.

Sam 11

Martin 7

Joe 3

Andrew 2

Laura 1

Then we got out Mlem. "Cats in Spaaaace," we chorused as we set up. It was noted for some very slow lift offs as certain captains tried to conserve their dice for the later stages. Especially me, who practically tip toed out of the atmosphere, desperate to avoid the nearest planet which would give Martin the cats-on-four-planets bonus. It worked, and I was able to land MY fourth cat on a planet that same round.

But once we were past a certain point, it seemed the galactic winds were with us. Joe once leapt from space 6 to space 20 in a single roll, and we repeatedly reached Deep Space which became quite crowded by the end. There were also very few failed missions - I don’t think Sam lost a single cat and he was first to run out of his feline crew thus ending the game.

Andrew 41

Martin 39

Joe 32

Sam 27

Laura 22

And with this, I left. Laura, too, made her excuses and left and the remaining three soldiered on.

They played Tower Up while Joe’s dog did a poo on the floor.

And then they played So Clover twice, scoring 18/18 and the 16/18!

Oh, and right at the start of the evening, Joe and Sam played Life In Reterra, and Joe won...

All that’s left is for the GNN crew (minus yours truly) to get ready for Novocon! I’m sad I can’t go, but looking forward to the blog!