Ego-friendly

 This week, once I'd knocked on Sam's front door, Adam H ushered me in to a game of Cross Clues already featuring Joe, Ian, Pete, Martin and, of course,  Adam and Sam. Pete handed me a card before I'd even put my rucksack down.

A whirl of an introduction and, with hindsight, I perhaps shouldn't have been so keen to guess Martin's clue of Firefighter since I noticed that “cat” was one of the words and firefighters save cats, don't they?

Well, this one didn't. 

Best clue/guess went to Martin and Pete. Martin clued “Jenkins” to which Pete said “war and ear,” getting Martin's reference to the war of Jenkin's ear which is a real thing, apparently. 

23 out of 25

Then we paused about what to play until Laura arrived. We decided to set up two games which she could join once she was here. Me, Martin, Pete and Sam played Ego (a bit like Beowulf) while Adam, Joe, Ian and eventually Laura played Silos (a bit Municipium). Nothing in common, except for a large spaceship piece as the centrepiece of the game.

Pete had never played Beowulf so Sam explained the rules from the ground up. The risks, the betting, the scoring and the disapproval of the aliens - shiny red tokens swiftly named “angry babies.”

Ego played like a sci-fi themed Beowulf: you take risks, prepare for expeditions, bid on things and so on. From very early on, Martin complained that he had too many cards and as the game drew to a close, his collection of cards swung into action. Sam, meanwhile, was doing fine until the last two rounds where his luck ran out and the angry babies began moving in his direction. Pete ended with no angry babies at all for a 20 point bonus which meant that Martin wasn’t completely alone at the top of the scoreboard.

Martin 62

Pete 42

Andrew 16

Sam 15

Martin said he missed the storyline of Beowulf and also the sense of risk. Looking though the game box, we looked at some extra optional bits of the board which can add to the game and bring in new challenges. Maybe the game would be better if we used those.

Silos was still underway. I hadn’t paid much attention to the game apart from noting the repeated use of the phrase “pull a human from the bag” and the fact that some of the meeples wore hats.

Laura won and Ian “a distant last”

Meanwhile, Martin, Pete, Sam and I had played two other games. The first was Bomb Buster. It was Pete’s first go, and so Martin talked him through the rules. He then looked at the special conditions for Chapter 18 (out of 66, still a ways to go) and found they removed a lot of what he’d just explained.

Never mind, we had use of a “general radar” for our piece of equipment, allowing us to search of wires according to the turn of a card. Slowly we picked off one value after another until we had succeeded.

Hoorah!

We also played Chocolate. A grid of 4 x 4 face down tiles and five discarded (also face down) tiles depicting chocolates of various shape/flavour are revealed one by one and players have the opportunity, on their turn, of picking up a card with a potential end result (ie, three dark chocolate next to each other or more green than pink in one half of the grid) and a value which will count towards you if that card proves to be correct.

It’s rather enjoyable. Slightly luck-pushy but not overly so. We did ponder a variant in which a card with an end result that is already apparent should be removed and a new one revealed. Maybe next time, then.

Andrew22

Martin 20

Pete 15

Sam 15

And with that, I was gone. Thanks al and I leave Sam to fill in the rest of the evening’s doings...

*

After Andrew left someone suggested 6 Nimmt and without further ado the cards were dealt out and people began cursing in earnest. The cursiest were Ian and I, who did appallingly. Whilst Martin was chortling insufferably on the other side of the table - enough for me to call him the C word as I picked up another haul of cards - we just kept on picking up bullheads, and even Pete's diabolical last round of 40 points didn't get him anywhere near us. 

Martin 15
Adam 27
Laura 37

Pete 51
Joe 53
Ian  63
Sam 70

Now Laura and Adam left too and the five remaining decided it was So Clover time. We opened with a bit of a damp squib - I forgot to take pictures but there were some fours and even a three witnessed. Mostly it was notable for Ian's weekend combo (throne/explosion) popping up in exactly the same formation for Pete. Ian had clued 'regicide' - Pete went for diarrhoea. "I prefer diarrhoea" Ian admitted graciously. 

So - although we lost Joe before it happened - the four of us went again. This was an improved effort, although we did start with a 3: Martin's combos of jelly/cavalry and skin/revolver throwing us for/from a six. But everyone appreciated Darcy as a clue for moist/master. 

We followed it with three sixes and ended the night with a decent 21/24. Thanks all!

When the going gets turf

 This week GNN returned to Joe’s studio as a venue. When Joe let me in, we tried to remember the last time there’d been a games night here. Something to do with a birthday and going for pizza, maybe just after the lockdown.

But enough reminiscing - in Joe’s studio were Pete, Adam H, Ian and Martin mid-way through a game of Abluxxen. Joe ate while he played and I sat down to watch. I discovered,as I did, that I couldn’t remember the rules. Everyone seemed to have a lot of cards in their hands, but as the game neared its end, everyone started shedding. Martin played eight 3s and then seven 6s in two rounds. This was pivotal as the game ended soon after.

Martin 12

Adam9

Joe 4

Ian -1

Pete -2

Then we split into two groups. Joe, Ian and Adam played Azul while Martin, Pete and I played Samurai. This Knizia game appeared on GNN some years back (quick check, oh my god, 11 years ago) and it’s simple strategy found some favour. Now Martin has a copy, it’s back on the table.

The two games, side by side, meant the room was pervaded by thoughtful silences and frustrated sighing. Samurai, in particular, saw some hefty pauses for thoughts. My best move involved me putting down two tiles and clearing out the Edo area, picking up a rice bale and the other two removed from the board because of tied results. 

Before long, the struggle was to try to place your pieces without leaving an opportunity for another player to finish surrounding a piece and pick it up.

1= Pete

1= Andrew 

2. Martin 

I enjoyed it and Martin seemed happy with his acquisition, although he blamed his last place on the fact that his best tiles didn't come out until the end. 

Across the table, Azul went into a rare sixth round. After Martin commented he'd never seen that before, he was assured that this was Azul “on another level”. They didn't specify if this level was higher or lower.

Adam 91

Joe 80

Ian 78

Next was talk of another couple of 3 player games before Winner's Circle/Royal Turf but I was keen for a big 6-player finale before I left so Winner's Circle (the tiny Japanese edition) was brought out. In this game a die is rolled and that tells us which category we can use when moving a horse of our choice.

In order to best appreciate the die-rolling aspect, the dice arena or, if you will, dice stadium Das Exclusive was brought to the table and so we were given the rare treat of playing with a dice arena larger than the game itself. 

We played by the original Royal Turf rules, in which the horses are drawn randomly but each colour has certain characteristics. White, for example, starts in pole position and has one side that's  got one category that's over powered while the others are dismal, while Orange (starts at the back) was balanced on all categories. 

It didn't work quite as well as Winner's Circle style random horses since the horses at the back couldn’t move until the horses at the front did, giving those horses are distinct advantage.

After round one, I was in the lead with £550 from what I thought were some shrewd decisions. Then, after the discussion about how slanted the game seemed to be in favour of those at the head of the pack, the contrarian in me wanted to win by choosing a different path. In the third and final round, I chose horses further back and foud myself struggling to keep them out of last, while the usual suspects sped off to a quick win.

Pete won in the kind of rags-to-riches story that Hollywood would love. After round one, he’d done so badly that he was, technically, $100 pounds in debt.

In the final round, though, he demonstrated almost psychic form-reading abilities. He bet on the top three and pushed himself into first.

Pete $2000

Martin $1800

Joe $1450

Ian $1200

Adam $1150

Andrew $1150

He even magnanimously agreed to pay off the $100 he owed after round one - after he’d worked out he would still be in first.

At this point, I set off, happy and satisfied for another week.

Thanks all.

Greenbank rangers

 This week, with a lack of available venues, five of us converted on the Greenbank pub in Easton for the week's bout of games. This meant I took the train, which gave the whole thing a sort of games weekend vibe. I got off at Easton, and found that Katy was on the same train. She'd even got on at the same station as me but, for whatever reason,  we hadn't seen each other on the platform.

And so we arrived together at the pub where we found Joe, Martin and Ian already playing a game. I didn’t recognise it nor take a note if its name but I do know that Ian won again soon after we sat down.

The first game the five of us played among the hubbub of a busy pub was Bomb Busters. Martin asked if anyone needed a rule refresher and I admitted I’d never played the game at all. I was quickly brought up to speed and thrown in at Chapter 17. This meant that the “captain” had to lie about whatever clues they were giving regarding the value of their wires. 

Since I was the newbie, Martin suggested I rethink my first guess since it was a number that could be a red wire and thus end the game. I did so and we were safe. Until the very next turn, when Katy confidently chose a wire, and Ian revealed it to be red. Game done after three turns. “Did you enjoy it?” Joe asked me.

We played again and this time we were a little more circumspect and we were able to complete the chapter, with Martin having both red wires.

Then I noticed that there was a couple in the corner also playing games. I was impressed that this pub had such a pro-gaming clientele until Martin explained that they’d leant them a copy of So Clover. And they were playing the competitive variant. Amazing.

In a far corner of the pub, the strains of folk music could be heard. “Is that live?” Joe asked and, confused by the background chatter, I asked if he’d said “Is that Laibach?” which would have been a remarkable change of style for Slovenia’s greatest band. But the music was live. Every Tuesday, apparently.

After a lengthy break to cue at the bar for drinks, we got out The Gang, competitive poker. It didn’t end well. We did so badly at our second attempt that the hands were almost perfectly ranked in the opposite order that we’d bid. When we’d finished (ie gave up) Joe expressed confusion after how successful they’d been last time. Martin bemused me by saying there was a competitive variant of The Gang. But surely that would just be Texas Hold 'Em, wouldn't it? 

Finally (for me) we played Mamma Mia! It had been a while since I’d played this game and I had a brief rules refresher. It was a harsh game - bombastic pizzas (needs 15 ingredient cards to complete the pizza) were surprisingly successful which meant the table was often swept clean of any available ingredients. In round one, Ian, Joe and Martin didn’t make any pizzas at all, while Katy managed two.

But right at the end, I came good - I was the last to play cards and so, of course, I put down some ingredients and a pizza. It turned out that this was to be the winning move as my final pizza could be completed and I took a last-minute win!

Andrew 5

Katy 4

Martin 3

Ian 2

Joe 1

And with that, I was out the door, retracing my steps through Easton’s backstreets, and arriving at the station with minutes to spare before my train home.

Thanks all. It was a blast.