Two noes for triangulation

 This Tuesday i walked to Sam's place past a set of.chalk drawings on the pavement, where someone had scribbled messages to any passerby. One seemed particularly apt, so i arrived ar Sam's with the sense that today's games had an air of destiny about them.

There were seven of us, The host, Sam and Joe, Adam H, Katy, Martin, Pete and myself. We consider a big communal game to kick us off and Triangulation was suggested, only to receive two swift vetoes from wordgamephobics Adam and Katy - giving us the blog's title.

Instead, we split into two factions. Joe, Sam and Adam played Rebuilding Chicago. This looks like the sensible half of the table, as it looks like a mass of complexity with each player’s area looking like a cardboard spreadsheet. 

Pete, Katy, Martin and me play Maya. This, too, is a thoughtful eurogame like Rebuilding Chicago but as we play, we dub various moves as "sacrificial  peppers” and “spunking our potatoes,” doing our best to make it sound silly.

We had little idea about how to approach this game. Early on, Martin grumbles about how bad he's doing. “How can you tell?” asked Katy as she grooved along to T Rex. Katy’s early good mood could be down to how well she was doing, picking up 75 points in the first few rounds. Martin tried to keep up while Pete and I kept each other company with less that 20 points.

Katy promises “the move of the century” before she admits it actually isn't that great at all. I am mocked for how long I'm taking over my turns, especially when I fall into a distant last. We never get to see Katy’s move of the century since it is ruined by Martin. “What am I going to do with all these fucking gourds?” she cries.

As The Blue Nile drifts from the Bluetooth speakers for a few songs, Pete takes the lead! He’s timed it perfectly since the game is almost done and there’s no time to react.

Pete 140

Katy 128

Martin 123

Andrew 90

Since Rebuilding Chicago is still half an hour from completion, we play Gang Of Dice. This dice rolling game was a burst of fun, as we react with amazement at how our rolls failed/succeeded.

Pete 77

Martin 47

Andrew 21

Katy 17

We then have a quick one round game of Jungo, that Pete wins comfortably. Martin remarks that he finished with more cards than he started with.

At this point, Rebuilding Chicago finishes. 

Adam 174

Sam 154

Joe 138

With everyone all together, I felt that this is the best time to bow out and have an early night, so I do. Thanks all.

*                    *                    *

The door had barely shut on Andrew when Martin was coaxing the remaining six into a game of Mongoose Poker, a title so gleaming new that it's not even made its way onto the BGG database yet. Seemingly inspired by The Gang, this game sees everyone trying to predict the strength of their own (unseen) poker hand. Unlike The Gang, it's competitive. And unlike The Gang, you can't see your own cards, only everyone else's. 

There's the deal, the flop, the turn and the river, like a standard game of Texas Hold'em. But between each phase players get to play and information-gathering card from their hand that the other players will answer for you. These are all about maths and logic and appear to be simple. But they didn't account for our collective capacity for bewilderment. 

If the answer's yes, orient the card towards yourself. 

If it's no, have it face everyone else. 

Katy was first to confess her confusion, not helped by her desire to decode the infographics instead of just reading the text. Then Adam admitted that he didn't have a clue about anything, and Joe, now on his fourth pint of beer, began serenading Martin with damning comparisons to The Gang. "Jesus Christ" Martin said to the room at one stage, before clarifying he wasn't directing it at Joe, whose turn it was. 

At the end of each round (-there are three) you can both guess at your cards (a point per correct guess) and guess your overall position, which scores - assuming you guess correctly -  according to the points on the cards you used to glean information, which also establish an initiative order. IT was all too much for Joe, who said he had some feedback for the designer. "What's that?" Martin said. 
"Has he played The Gang?" said Joe.

But Joe rallied from his mid-game slough to claim joint third with myself and Katy. Martin was a clear winner, with Adam back in 'fourth' as he happily called it. 

Martin 13
Pete 11
Katy/Joe/Sam 8
Adam 3

After the highs and lows of Chicago and Mongeese, Adam left for home and as a quintet we inevitably set up So Clover. Joe and I were on the whisky at this point and memories are a little fuzzy, but I do recall my disappointment that the answer to cows wasn't the one we wanted. 

I think was also around here that Joe began his soliloquy about being victim of co-ops 4-for-3 beer promotion; only because he'd now drunk them all he insisted on called it the 3-for-4 promotion instead. I should really have stopped giving him whisky at this point. 

Joe and I were both also victims of some mild portobello nonsense and Martin struggled with his combo of jelly/temple, eventually plumping for ruined as a clue. As we speculated in silence, Joe murmured 'ruined octopus' happily to himself, like a psychopath perusing the menu at a dark-web restaurant. 

22/30, with Pete's ass for horse/clown a nice clue.

Katy now had to go and Pete and Martin also made for the door. But when they saw Joe and I setting up our clovers again they found themselves sitting back down and uncapping the pens of destiny. Again I went first and again I fell short of a six, with a self-portobello of sorts, having not spotted that cross went with my clue of stitching. But after that it was sixes all around, with Martin's Minecraft for cube/place and Joe's Martini for evening/lemon being amongst the highlights. 

It was now around 11.30pm and for us old crumblies, even whisky-infused ones, that meant bed was calling.