Bring Your Own Cestus

Tuesday arrived with yet more drama playing out in Parliament - I mention this because I hope one day we'll look back and laugh, but probably not - and so we grasped preoccupations of our own with which to spend the evening. Rovers having a match on meant Joe and Adam were struggling to find places to park, however, so there was a conversation between myself (Sam), Katy, Ian and Sally that lasted at least five minutes.

"Will you be joining us tonight?" Katy asked, but Sally declined. She had children to wrangle into bed, an event they always resist with increasingly demented strategies.

By the time all the willing gamers were finally sat at the table, it was nearing 8 o'clock, and we kicked off with a six-player Bring Your Own Book. Adam had brought his own (Thomas Pynchon) so from our bookshelves we mixed in Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carson McCullers, Zadie Smith, Nick Hornby, and the British Gardeners Guide to Insects.

Joe won this with "How much have you drunk?"

Adam grabbed an early lead with his answer to what one might see on a bumper sticker: I'm driving along the freeway looking for Volkswagens to destroy. Ian requested a name for a Battleship and most of us found suitably aggressive-sounding monikers, but Katy took the point with Puddles. 

Step five in Katy taking over the world was Vibrate, vibrate, and vibrate again (although I still liked my suggestion of several bird calls). My craft beer was called Fuck you, leave me alone and at the end of a good half-hour of Stinker-like nonsense, Adam took the win. 

With the hour closer to 9 than 8, the day's talk of Pax Pamir dissipated with Martin, Adam and Katy trying out Martin's latest Knizian Fix: Clash of the Gladiators. I - along with Joe and Ian - was fixated on our dubiously-motived scramble around Africana, so didn't pick up much about the game aside from the fact there was a lot of swearing going on. When I asked if the game was any good, Martin replied "Yes! Adam just twatted a lion"

Meantime Ian's eerie predictions of his own demise looked like coming true in Africana as we both found ourselves in the northern hemisphere when all the expeditions started in the south - where Joe was. He led the early running, and my optimism aligned aligned to Ian's when I paid no less than eight coins to keep turning the pages of the book (what is the book?) in order to find myself another assistant. 

I love the simplicity of Africana though, even if fate can occasionally crap on you from a height: twice I had a large hand of cards but was unable to use them to any effect. Ian and I thought Joe had the game stitched up, but thanks to my expedition cards I managed an unlikely win. And Ian was closer than we all expected...

Sam 36
Joe 32
Ian 28

At the other end of the table, after some talk about 'fucking the bear' ("Can you fuck it nicely?" Katy asked) Clash of the Gladiators had also finished:

Adam 20
Katy 18
Martin 17

Gladiators: Ready!

The verdict was broadly positive, so hopefully we'll see it again. They'd also squeezed in a game of Hats...

Martin 42
Adam 36
Katy 34

And after Adam retired for the evening, Katy and Martin played a round of Maskmen:

Martin 2
Katy 1

After Africana, Ian elected to depart as well, leaving us as a four. We decided on Polterfass as a nice 10pm game, and began rolling barrels like our livelihoods depended on it. Thank God they actually don't, though, because as always in Polterfass I repeatedly shot myself in the foot, even allowing Katy - 30 points behind me at one stage - to overhaul me. The battle for first was always between Martin and Joe, and Martin's cause was harpooned when we collectively bid for all of his beer. The smirk was wiped from my face when the same thing happened to me moments later - but the round of the night was the final one, where Katy scored a whopping 21 beers and Joe staggered drunkenly over the victory line. Katy caught Martin for joint second.

Joe 84
Martin / Katy 47
Sam 37

I asked if there was a tie-breaker and everyone scathingly cried "What, for second place?" as though I was pedantically foot-noting. I don't know, it's not the same without Andrew here... I forgot to take photos of Polterfass, but here is the box from a funny angle.

The last game of the night was a newbie - Startups, from Oink games - purveyors of interesting decisions and graphically-pleasing bits in small boxes. I wondered if it was a bit late to be learning any rules but Martin batted my feebleness aside, even though he admitted Oink rulebooks were usually "a bit weird".

Point rewards left; Monopoly tokens right

The game is a bit weird too.  A deck of cards represents several startup companies, and during play you're building a tableau of these cards in front of you. At the end of the round what you're aiming for is the most of the company cards you've collected - anyone who has less of that type of card has to pay you, and most money wins the round. It's classic Oink scoring - 2points for first, 1point for second, -1point for last place.

On your turn you pick up a card, and play a card - but inevitably there are catches. The card you pick up can be a free face-up card from the collective dumping ground (the market), or the top card from the deck if you want to pay a coin to any face-up cards in the market. You can then play a card into either the market, or your tableau. Having the most of a type of card gets you the monopoly token - now you don't have to pay to any matching cards in the market - but you're not allowed to pick them up either!

What this makes for is a jostle for positioning on various companies and the desire to avoid having certain cards means you may - as I did, twice - end up spending far too much money avoiding them. A final twist: when the deck runs out the three cards in your hand get added to your tableau, and (unless there are ties) coins are paid to all the monopoly holders before points are scored.

I finished the first two round in third, but collapsed to ignominy in the final round. The others fared a little better - Martin went from a shocking opening round to grabbing the win:

Martin 3
Katy 2
Joe 2
Sam -1

This time there was a decider - Katy won the tie-breaker to claim second. We all liked Startups - very, very Oinky and I think a bit less procedural feeling than Flotsam Fight - closer to Maskmen in how hard it is to get a handle on - in a good way.

But with the hour now 11 o'clock, it was time to head home to bed. Until next time... thank you all, it was special.

Somebody's Poisoned the Waterhole!

Thursday! Adam's suggestion of A Feast for Odin gained short shrift, as both Andrew and I wanted to play a game we had a chance of winning. He tried little one-two by proposing Caverna instead, but we were too smart for that.

But would we be smart enough to beat him at Africana? It's been many moons since Michael Schacht's game of colonial exploitation has seen the table, and - theme to one side - it was nice to revisit it.

It was new to Adam and Stanley, however, so we needed a rules run-through. For the uninitiated, Africana sees you as one of the European powers dashing around the continent in the great carve-up, going on expeditions and adventures. Your options are almost Ticket to Ride-simple: pick up cards, play cards (to move your guy) or go to 'the book' and start an adventure. The books are in the north and south hemisphere, and whichever one you go to, completing the adventure requires some travelling to the opposite hemisphere. As Adam said, it's the game with the "world's largest carbon footprint". Expeditions get you points (and money). Use money to start Adventures, which also get points, but also also combine in set-scorey ways for Extra Points.

You always have the smiling Assistant who helps you move, and you can get more assistants - from the book - to help you move even more, but the more Assistants you have, the more points it costs you; maybe in the game's token nod to the idea that ultimately, you're being judged by God, or History, or maybe Twitter.

It's a game like Ticket to Ride in that many turns are spent picking up cards, before completing a killer turn - Stan, Adam and Andrew (in particular!) all pulled these off. I didn't and could feel my exploitative adventurer guy almost festering in Leopold, as Expedition cards were swooped up around his ears. Adam was convinced it was going to be Stanley's day as his multiple assistants saw him hardly ever picking up cards at all, but instead scurrying around Africa like a boy intent on victory. But his Adventure cards didn't combine in the most alluring ways, leaving Andrew able to return to France the most exploitative player of all!

Andrew 44
Adam 40
Sam 30 / Stanley 30

Stan now retired to bed and we debated our next move before settling on Take It Easy. Sticking to GNN's long tradition of 'calling' the tiles with a theme, I settled on board game designers. Andrew did Japanese words, and Adam computer games. But all three rounds had diabolical aspects to the tiles themselves, as Andrew and I both flipped lots of '1' tiles and with Adam's final draw, almost any other tile would have helped us more than what he turned over. Adam and I scored pretty miserably, whereas Andrew claimed his second win of the night:

Andrew 476
Sam 409
Adam 385

We finished the evening with Kariba, Knizia's waterhole-themed frolic of animal fright: scare animals away to claim them as points. Rather than suggest three rounds for a game, Kariba's rules propose 'three games, and then compare points' which I rather like from a commitment perspective. But we followed that suggestion anyway.

Andrew led after the first game, but in the second Adam swooped in with three mice to scare off all 8 elephants and from that moment it was trying to figure out a way to catch him. I'm not totally ashamed to say we combined to prevent him doing the same thing in the third game, as I played one mouse and shouted "go on, Andrew!" - which he did.

But it was in vain:

Adam 54
Sam 47
Andrew 46

"I like this game!" said Adam. It is a sneaky little thing. Somewhat like Adam. But the hour was fairly late by now, so we all snuck off to bed...*

*don't be silly

Sir Arthur Coal and Oil

This Tuesday, despite my best efforts at dawdling and checking my phone, I arrived early at Joe’s. His family were still in the kitchen eating, so I was escorted to the lounge. A rare treat, with its soft furnishings and lovely view. Katy arrived soon after and she went straight to the window to pick out Bristol landmarks.

Before long, more of us had arrived and Joe decided there were enough of us to take over the kitchen.

The first game was Birds of a Feather, and there were seven of us: Joe, myself, Ben, Matt, Andy, Ian and Katy. Sam was making a last minute dash to the off-licence while we played.

It was a nice warm-up to the evening. Katy complained that she didn’t know what to do, but rejected any suggestion that she should go Dirk. I sailed to a comfortable win, having completed two sets of bird-spotting.

Andrew 28
Ben 21
Matt 20
Joe 20
Katy 19
Andy 19
Ian 18

Then Sam returned and we split into two groups. The evening began as an all Japanese affair, with one half of the table hosting Takashi Ishida’s Magical Athlete, and the other half featuring the Japan-based Tokaido, by 7 Wonders designer Antoine Bauza. And if that weren’t Japanese enough for you, I was on the Sake this evening.

Tokaido features the players travelling from Kyoto to Tokyo, stopping off at inns along the way, and also visiting temples, painting panoramas, buying souvenirs. These all give you points, and at the end of the game, there are bonuses for those how did the most of a particular activity.

The four pieces plod along the road, with the furthest back always the next player to go. This means that simply shooting off into a big lead is pointless, as you simply won’t move again until you’re overtaken.

Katy, Ben, Joe and Andy played Magical Athlete. Ben asked to play this solely based on the picture on the box. He must’ve been disappointed by the under-designed dirt brown track that the races would take place on.

Ian, Sam, Matt and myself went for Tokaido and, apart from Matt getting confused over what colour he’d chosen, it was quite a serene occasion. I was so serene that I let myself fall back into a distant last. Sam went big on souvenirs and the eternally skint artist, Ian, picked up lots of bonus points for panoramas.

Sam 80
Matt 72
Ian 67
Andrew 64

Luckily, Magical Athlete ended at the same time as Tokaido.

Ben 11
Joe 9
Andy 8
Katy 4

So with the eight of us together again, we were able to reshuffle the groups. We split into two groups of four again. This time Katy, Ian, Sam and Matt chose Riff Raff while Joe, me, Andy and Ben played Isle of Trains.

Isle of Trains is a card game not dissimilar to Impulse in that the cards serve a number of functions: as parts of the train, as money to buy new parts and – if you rotate them – they become goods (timber, coal or oil) that you can load onto trains. And here’s the trick: loading goods onto other players’ trains gets you a bonus (more cards, an extra action etc). Once your train has enough, you can make a delivery, either to the discard pile (and then pick up more cards) or by picking up a card in the centre for points.

It’s all quite simple once you got going. Joe never upgraded his engine above the basic level, whereas I did, and I had a caboose to boost the pulling power. Ben upgraded to a level three engine pretty early on. Andy had trouble getting the cards he wanted, at one point having a hand containing only three level one engine cards.

Ben 49
Joe 46
Andy 45
Andrew 40

By the time we’d ended, Riff Raff had long since finished....

Katy 0
Matt 3
Ian 7
Sam 9

... and they’d begun on Africana. Obviously, this evening was going to be an epic. I was too distracted to really appreciate what went on in Africana, but I did notice a couple of moments where players got confused about which colour they were.

To entertain ourselves, we four had a game of For Sale using Joe’s newly bought copy from Italy. The cards were nice and big, and the illustrations clearer. But it’s the same old For Sale that we know and love.

Andrew 77
Andy 59
Ben 58
Joe 51

During this game, Ben found a packet of Skittles in his jacket pocket! Oh, how I wish I lead a life where things like that might happen to me. We all shared in a late-night sugar rush. They were all very welcome except that Katy said she didn't like the orange or purple ones. Insanity.

Then we discovered that Ben had missed his bus, so we played once more while Africana reached its closing stages.

Andrew 60
Ben 59
Joe 58
Andy 47

When Africana finished, it was another win for Katy.

Katy 47
Sam 46
Ian 33
Matt 32

And with the time creeping past 11.30, we were away. What a night! Thanks to Joe for hosting, and to his patient family for letting us turf them out of their kitchen.

The Division makes its first appearance of the season, and after two weeks Katy has the lead in Points and the medal table, while Ben leads on Points Ratio.

Like whisky for chocolate

Thursday, and Chris and Andrew joined me (Sam) for some non-leaderboard high-jinks. And what an evening of high-jinking it became, with our inner souls bared before the night was through...

We began with Chocolatl, a recent purchase via BGG. The theme of the game is competing to make chocolate, but the theme is as light as an Aero with it's casing stripped away - this game is all about the mechanics. Luckily, the mechanics were pretty neat. The preparation of chocolate comes in a series of bidding rounds with each chocolatier starting with an identical set of cards. You bid on getting the Chocolate Man (helps you bid) and if your bid is rubbish you end up with the old man, who hampers your bidding. Then you bid on points, then the option of +1 on every bid or a die to roll to increase your bid, then points plus end-game points, and so on, until the last bid which is over high-value bidding cards to add to your hand for the next round.

I really liked it, and I should add that despite winning both games I expressed the same opinion when lagging miles behind the others in game two. It's not hugely unlike Yspahan, but easier to pick up and play and is over much quicker. We didn't keep track of the scores but I romped away in game one with Andrew second and Chris third, then staged an end-game recovery in game two for a narrow victory over Chris, with Andrew third.

image courtesy JackytheRipper on BGG

We moved on to Africana - new to Chris, but relatively straightforward to pick up. It was nice to play this again, and I'd love to say I operated as shrewdly as the scores suggest. But really, lady luck smiled on me repeatedly as adventures and expeditions just seemed to fall into my hands at the right time:

Sam 114
Andrew 55
Chris 36

Finally, we saw off the night with Take it Easy. I began the calling with Phil Collins songs. I ran out about halfway through, which is possibly a good thing, and changed to Peter Gabriel. We all agreed the tiles improved at this point.

Chris called the next round and went for people he "hated at college". This stream of names could have been unnerving on another night, with the volume of the detested alarming enough without the fact Chris could recall all their names with minimal effort. Luckily, Andrew and I were quite drunk. We only protested when Chris called the name and didn't actually mention the numbers, seemingly lost in reverie.

Andrew then gave us a treat by calling Japanese TV dramas, giving both title and précis in the most culturally elevated round by some distance, after my 80's pop idol and Chris' psychopathy. I won, but the battle for second couldn't have been closer:

Sam 433
Chris 387
Andrew 386

Thanks guys, a great warm-up for Novocon!

Male Patton Boldness

The last Tuesday of the season, and alongside host Joe, Martin, Sam, Matt, Ian and myself, we also found Steve in our midst, keen to get rid of his two red fives before the season’s end.

We spilt into two. Martin, Joe and Sam when for the new Race To The Rhine, a sort of war game where three players race up the track, beating back the Nazi hordes and first one across the Rhine is the winner. If you get to the Rhine at all, in which case other means of finding the winner are used, but more of that later.

The rest of us went for something a little lighter. Africana, the joyous romp across any number of indigenous cultures, looking for treasures and “assistants.” I explained the rules to Steve and we were off! Although we often forgot which colour we were (I'm never blue, and Steve was appalled at being yellow).

I flatter myself that I though I was doing quite well, with my extra joker in my hand, but I hadn’t spent enough in the books, and both Steve and Matt easily overtook me on artifacts and stuff. Ian found himself frustrated that, in his last turn, he couldn’t do anything except buy a new expedition just for the one point it would give him.

Steve 42
Matt 38
Andrew 29
Ian 23

(Just a quick diversion, there’s a small matter of the Africana division, with yours truly doing rather well.)

Meanwhile, The Race to the Rhine was still in full swing, so we had time for another game. Since Steve was now on the cusp of a perfect five, we tried to avoid anything that needed strategy and chose Knizia’s elegant but dice-heavy Age Of War. We hoped that the luck aspect would level the playing field somewhat and also, when it looked like he might win, I have to admit the three of us did our best to stop him. Finally, Matt was able to pick up the final card which gave him the win.

Matt 11
Andrew 10
Steve 8
Ian 4

And by now Race To The Rhine had finished. By all accounts, it was something of a anti-climax, starting well but then tailing off. No one reached the Rhine, and since all three of them killed an equal number of Nazis and had the same number of medals, the tie-breaker was turn order. In other words, the final places were decided according to how they were sat around the table.

Martin 4 dead Nazis, 5 medals
Joe 4 dead Nazis, 5 medals
Sam 4 dead Nazis, 5 medals

After this, Steve went home, his two-game quota filled. The remaining six of us went for 6nimmt, since it’s a nice short game. We didn’t realise quite how short it would be, with Ian crashing past the 66-point barrier faster than a cartoon cat stepping on a roller-skate and whizzing into a larder full of pots and pans. After a bad first round, he then found himself in a spiral of doom, picking up cards almost every time he played. Joe stayed aloof from all of this to clock up his second win on 6nimmt!

Joe 9
Sam 14
Martin 20
Matt 26
Andrew 30
Ian 80

And so the season draws to a close. It’s been the driest finish to a July to September season since 1910, according to the news. But for all that, we still haven’t had a games night outside. Meanwhile, the winners are...

Steve takes the Form Table. Only one game away from a perfect five: he still ended the season with the rest of us wondering how he became such a winning machine.

						Points
Steve	3	1	1	1	1	7
Adam	3	2	2	1	1	9
Sam	2	3	1	2	2	10
Martin	3	1	2	1	5	12
Matt	4	1	2	3	2	12
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Joe	1	2	6	1	3	13
Hannah	2	2	3	4	5	16
Andrew	5	2	3	3	3	16
Ian	6	4	4	2	1	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Anja	3	3	5	5	5	21
Katie	3	3	5	5	5	21
Jim	4	5	5	5	5	24

Then on the Division, it’s close at the top. Sam takes first place in Points by less than two points: it was basically all down to that last game of 6nimmt. I win on the medal table, though. And there’s that man again: Steve takes Points Ratio by a handsome margin. Well done that man. Well done all of us!

I had a Faaarm in Africaaa

The threat of a gaming drought abated, and despite Sam and Andrew defecting to Bracknell for the night, we managed a quartet of gamers around the table at mine; Martin, Ian, Matt and me (Joe).

Martin brought Metropolys, a simple and quite pretty auction game, where players bid for occupation of areas of a city. At the end of the game, players will score points for occupying areas corresponding to the colour of their secret objective card, and fulfilling conditions on another secret objective card can give them even more points.

Martin schooled us in the rules, and once we started playing he schooled us in the tactics, biding his time and then snaffling lots of cheap areas. He did say there were other ways of playing, but it was a pretty effective strategy.

It has similarities to a trick-taking game, in that you will only lead an auction by winning the previous one, so timing is all. Certainly the kind of game you need to play more than once, but I rarely want to jump straight back in to a new game - I usually find I need a night's sleep to assimilate the experience and wake up deciding I'd like to give it another crack.

Martin 45
Ian 29
Joe 22
Matt 21

Next up was Africana, which has been waiting in the wings for a while. Sam, Andrew and I have played a fair bit of three player, and we may, with Adam, have played a four player game, I can't remember. It was new to all but me, but it's fairly straightforward to get your head around.

One easy-to-forget rule is that you can pay 5 coins to change the colour of a card - in fact the first few times we played we didn't even know of this rule. It was certainly put to use last night, Ian in particular eschewing the book of adventures, at least early on, instead spending money to get where he needed to go. And it seemed to work, as he racked up a healthy pile of expeditions.
Martin cursed his hand of purples, and spent a few turns hanging around in Cairo waiting for the stars to align. He and I both made use of extra assistants, his, ironically enough, being purple. Matt lived up to his unlit pony moniker, and kept his cards close to his chest.

In the end, we all did a bit of everything, and the last turns slowed down a little as everyone worked out how to squeeze a final few points from their explorations. As we totted up, I was hopeful that my set of three masks worth 12 points would propel me into first, but it was not to be. Matt had accrued a startling number of expeditions, and a set of four different artefacts for 10 points sealed the deal. Ian's pile of expeditions didn't look so strong after that, but his adventure cards boosted him into second place by a whisker. And Martin had dallied too long in Cairo - he may even have eaten a bad date or two - securing fourth place.

Matt 47
Ian 37
Joe 35
Martin 28

Martin noted that it is an extremely tactical game in that you are only really responding to what happens on your turn. As with other such games, lower player counts tend to work best as they minimise the amount of change between turns. I agree, though often games that fall into that category feel very chaotic with higher player counts, and I don't think Africana is a chaotic game. It's opportunistic - and the opportunities you were hoping to exploit may have disappeared by the time your turn comes around, but you can quickly assess the new ones and, hopefully, form a coherent plan.

I particularly like to the way you can over-reach, setting off for a destination that you'll only get to if the card you pick up en-route allows you to cover that last link. It worked for me last night at least three times; it is admittedly less fun when it repeatedly doesn't pay off.


We still had time for a bit of Love Letter, and decided to play best of three. I'm starting to see the point of this little game - despite it's lightness each round suggests new strategic possibilities. Most of which I realised after the event.

Matt took his second win of the evening, and we called it a night. Thanks chaps - look forward to hearing all about the Bracknell breakaway.

Everyone feels a little blue sometimes

Tonight was a bumper crop at GNN, with eight people in attendance! Eight! And with a roaring fire, Christmas tree and the option of Walnut Liquor, it really felt quite Christmassy.

Sam, myself and Gonz had arrived in one car, Joe and Martin had turned up into another, and Adam made his own way to Steve and Anja’s. We split into three groups. Gonz had brought Agricola and Adam, after a run of poor form, was keen to get back on the horse. With no other takers brave enough to challenge the two of them, they set up camp at the far end of the big table.

Martin brought Palaces of Carrera, as usual, and he and Joe persuaded Steve to give it a try. Meanwhile, the remaining three went for Africana, the jolly game of third world exploitation. Sam explained the rules, and before long we were all running up and down the length of Africa like it was going out of fashion. Sam was white, Anja was red and I was blue.

And that’s where the title of this blog post comes from as I found that, if my opponents began their turn in the same city as me, they would frequently move my counter instead of theirs. Sam did this more than Anja. In fact, on one go, he began with his counter, switched over to mine and then completed the last leg of his journey by moving Anja’s. And to think he chose white because it would stand out from the red and blue.

I got a big stroke of luck mid-game as twice new expeditions were unveiled that started from cities where I already was. Plus, the books were kind to me, giving me an assistant and two matching artifacts without turning any extra pages. This was enough to give me a win. Anja’s lack of experience with the dusty African roads was evident, while Sam may be regretting hiring that extra assistant that took five points of his total.

Andrew 38
Sam 33
Anja 20

On the big table, Palaces of Carrera ended at about the same time as us. I’ll leave it to one of them to fill us in with the details, but Joe was heard to wail “I don’t understand this game!”

Martin 103
Joe 68
Steve 65

This marks Martin’s first appearance on the leaderboard. He asked me why the Roll For The Soul wasn’t leaderboard, and I explained that I felt awkward about writing down scores in the presence of non-gamers.

And before long, Agricola also came to an end. I watched them count up and was surprised by Gonz’s rather minimalist farm, but a lovely four-room stone house. Meanwhile, Adam’s farm was full of animals in lovely fenced stables, but his family of five was still living in a hovel.

I learnt later that the two had spent most of the game trying to ruin the other player’s plans. This does at least explain the relatively low scores. I guess this was as close to boxing that Agricola gets.

Adam 36
Gonz 26

When he heard those scores, Joe was heard to mutter “My daughters have scored higher than that.” However, Adam wasn’t concerned. After a run of three last places, he’d broken his Agricola curse. A pity that, since it’s only two-player, it’s not leaderboard, but Adam was fighting for his pride tonight. And he finally got it back.

After this, the eight of us joined together (nine if you include baby Lu, who was brought down mid-game) for a game of Kakerlakenpoker. But this time, the Royal version. With Royal cards and a few extra rules. It’s still enjoyable, but the extra rules don’t seem to add to the game. Perhaps because we haven’t played the basic version enough. Anyway, we dived in guessing or passing on our cards. I was glad to see someone challenge Adam and his tactic of passing on whatever he’s given. Thanks, Martin.

But it was Gonz who made everyone think he’d be good at poker, as he called every guess right. He finished with no cards, which sort of makes him the winner. But there are no winners in Kakerlakenpoker, so it’s not leaderboard. Which is good news for me, since I ended in last. Everyone else was in the middle.

After that, Sam, Gonz and I headed home even though the others were considering a final game. I hope they let us know what it was. In the meantime, the form table looks like this:

						Points
Andrew	1	1	3	1	3	9
Sam	2	2	1	3	1	9
Adam	2	2	2	1	3	10
Gonz	1	1	3	5	2	12
Chris	1	1	3	4	5	14
Joe	2	4	2	3	3	14
Quentin	4	1	1	5	3	14
Matt	3	2	5	5	5	20
Steve	3	2	5	5	5	20
Martin	1	5	5	5	5	21
Anja	3	3	5	5	5	21
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22

Guild until Dead

With people away or otherwise engaged, it was down to just the three of us tonight: myself, Joe and Sam. Sam came late and was initially distracted by the realisation that he’d misplaced his phone. He must have left back at the Encounters Short Film festival. But after a couple of phone calls to ask people to look for it, we began gaming. This, alone, marks him out as a gamer extraordinaire. I would’ve turned right around and gone back, but not Sam. He pressed on with his need for games. Amazing.

We began with a new game, Guildhall. This card game was recommended especially to Joe by the guy who works in our regular games shop. Whether this is a good thing or not is still undecided. The illustration on box of the game does not scream “We’re gonna have a good time tonight!” according to Joe. Unless board gamers are supposed to identify with a Peter Postlethwaite lookalike holding some pigs.

There are six different types of cards, and five colours of each. Each player has to get sets of five that they can then cash in for a Victory Point Card which is sitting in the centre of the table. First to 20VP wins.

But each card (even some of the VP cards) gives extra bonus actions when it is played. Careful timing and chaining of these actions is essential for success. It’s an odd game, sometimes a little counter-intuitive (it’s possible, for example, to discard no cards as part of your go).

Maybe it’s a grower, but it didn’t shine on it’s debut. It’s also quite confrontational, which is a fine line to walk here at GNN Mansions. We like our combat to be snide and as undetectable as possible. I was first to twenty points, thanks to picking up a “9 VP” card, and having enough to get another card the next go round. Sam spent most of the game using the word “shitbox” when looking through his cards. Joe went for farmers in a big way. Each to his own, I suppose.

Andrew 20
Joe 13
Sam 12

After this, with Adam absent, we broke out the High Society! This slightly-too-random game of trumps is high on our list of greats, even if it is an acquired taste. Like caviar, or the smell of the carpets in Harrod’s Executive Suite.

The first card turned over was a “x2”, and I went for it big time. It looked like I spent too much, though, since two times nothing is still nothing, and Joe started to pick up cards of his own. Sam played it safe and steered clear of the red bordered cards. Meanwhile Joe’s investment on a “x2” card was undone when he found himself picking up a “1/2” card putting him right back where he started. As it turned out, he scored fewest points and had least money. Talk about riches to rags!

Andrew 22
Sam 18
Joe OUT! (but he had 12)

After two light-ish games, we next decided on Africana. This game is a madcap romp back and forth across a continent. Sam went for early assistants, hoping the –5 damage would pay itself back. Joe got one and I foolishly got none at all. Any mojo I once had with this game has long since vanished, since I felt myself falling further behind. Sam scored in most bonus categories, but Joe’s specialisation in trinkets got him 18 points right there, which was enough to see him past Sam.

Joe 48
Sam 45
Andrew 34

A lovely evening, complete with “burnt toffee” flavour chocolate. On the form table, Adam still sits in pole position, but I reckon I can take him! He ain’t all that! Someone hold my coat!

						Points
Adam	1	3	2	2	2	10
Andrew	3	1	1	3	4	12
Sam	3	2	2	3	2	12
Hannah	2	1	3	3	4	13
Joe	1	3	2	4	4	14
Steve	2	3	3	3	4	15
Anja	3	2	5	1	5	16
Miles	2	3	5	5	5	20
Jonny	1	5	5	5	5	21
Quentin	3	3	5	5	5	21
Lizzy	2	5	5	5	5	22

Ave, nice day

Joe’s on Tuesdays. But not the core four, more like the wee three, as Adam couldn’t make it. It was me, Joe and Sam in attendance. The first thing to catch our eye in the corner of the room was Das Exclusive, Joe’s sumptuous dice arena. We tried it a couple of times and Sam noted with approval that the underside also has a baize finish, allowing for another dice-rolling surface.

We were discussing what good three player games Joe has, when Augustus was suggested. This raised some interest in two of Joe’s daughters who, in an attempt at pushing back their bed-time, said that they wanted to play too.

And so it was that, suddenly, we were five. Joe explained the rules to Sam, and off we went. After my first dismal game, I felt like I was more involved, and the house rule of shouting “Ave Caesar” when you’ve finished a card made it more fun. But then there was a dry spell when I barely got anything and my competitive edge was blunted.

Meanwhile, Joe’s youngest, Martha, showed a propensity for cards which damaged her opponents, and whenever she had to pick up a card, she sweetly asked if there were any “evil cards”.

In the end, new boy Sam came second in a close game.

Martha 53
Sam 49
Andrew 48
Bea 47
Joe 47

After this, the youngest and most female part of the games group went to bed, while the old men ploughed on. After far too long in the games cupboard discussing what to play, we chose Africana as being deep but short enough that we could squeeze in another game afterwards.

My plan was to ignore the adventures, and just go for expeditions. Joe went for end-of-game multipliers, and Sam picked up two jokers. The game is one of those when you always have one less card/a little less time than you need. Fun but frustrating.

Sam 42
Joe 36
Andrew 32

It was still early. Not early enough for 7 Wonders or Lords of Waterdeep, but still time for a couple of light games. We chose High Society. And in keeping with the luxurious nature of the game, we turned Das Exclusive over and used it as a tiny table. Sam kept his bidding cards until the end, and it worked. I kept hoping for that final red-bordered card to end the game soon, and it didn’t.

Sam 20
Joe 19
Andrew OUT!

Then we had to play a dice game. We just had to. We chose Pickomino. Sam began, bafflingly, by rolling his dice from his hand onto the kitchen table, instead of using the dice arena and cups. Das Exclusive does not take kindly to insults like this, and one wonders if his lack of success at the game wasn’t a sign of Das Exclusive’s displeasure.

But it’s a great feeling, hurling your dice from a leatherette cup, knowing that they won’t fly off into unlit corners of the kitchen. And, as Sam noted, the slightly hollow sound of the dice landing adds to the effect. The game itself was almost superfluous. If only we’d been dressed in velvet suits that stank of cologne and cigars, we’d have been living the dream! The dream after eating a lot of cheese, that is.

Joe 11
Andrew 10
Sam 0

						Points
Steve	1	2	1	1	3	9
Anja	2	3	1	1	3	10
Sam	3	1	1	2	4	11
Joe	1	2	2	4	3	12
Andrew	2	3	3	3	1	12
Jon	2	1	2	3	5	13
Adam	2	2	1	5	3	13
Quentin	2	2	3	5	5	18
Hannah	3	4	4	5	2	18
Martha	1	5	5	5	5	21
Will	3	3	5	5	5	21
Bea	4	5	5	5	5	24

Farewell Stabcon

Three years ago, Sam had the idea of going to Stabcon as a means of doing some research for a sitcom we were working on. This year, on Saturday evening, as we drove down dark country lanes following the tail lights of a famous games designer on our way to the pub, we realised we'd become that sitcom.

We (Sam, Joe, Adam and I) set off on Friday, keen and eager. We arrived after a pleasant drive, stopping off for food at a service station famous for its ducks. We didn't see any, though. However, once at the Britannia, early signs weren't good. Behind us in the queue to check in was a man who smelt quite strongly of piss. He made idle chat with us during a hold up at reception, and I held my breath and nodded non-committally.

We then set up in the hall, and started to play. Downfall of Pompeii was first, as it encourages back-stabbing and betrayal in a light-hearted and amusing way. We followed that up with a new game, Singapore, which is a lot of worker placement and resource conversion. Nice, but not earth-moving. Joe did manage to miss his mouth with a crisp twice in succession, though.

Downfall of Pompeii
Joe 9
Sam 8
Adam 7
Andrew 5

Early days, empty tables...

Singapore
Adam 79
Sam 74
Andrew 60
Joe 42

Then we thought perhaps we should mingle a bit, but time was getting on and we'd be going to eat soon. Adam played on the internet, because he was in the middle of a game and it's rude to keep people waiting.

Not ostracised, just playing Civ.

Joe taught Sam Elk Fest, a flicking game where your have to get your tiny wooden elk across the table on stepping stones. And then we played Biblios. We spiced it up by rolling the dice before we began, meaning each dice started with a random value. We play hard and fast in Stabcon.

Beer, butter and elks

Following that, we went to the carvery, and a very nice man found us a table while we stood at the bar and drank the beer made by (?) the band Elbow. During the meal, we discussed what we wanted to play next so when we got back to the Hotel, we were all geared up to play Africana. It was Adam's first attempt at this game which involves doing laps up and down Africa while picking up adventures and treasures along the way.

Africana
Andrew 41
Adam 38
Joe 36
Sam 34

Then we took another break and wandered around for a while. After that, Sam and Adam played Elk Fest while Joe taught me Traders of Carthage.

Then eleven o'clock rolled around and we thought it was too late to mingle, so we broke out the Tinners' Trail – a game we knew and loved. Halfway through, Cuz from Area 51 came over to see if we wanted to join in a game of The Resistance. We were too far in to stop, so we declined, and he seemed disappointed that we were only playing amongst ourselves.

Tin-mining in Joe's forehead? Anyone? It's quite dry . . .

Tinners' Trail
Sam 96
Adam 92
Andrew 75
Joe 66

That was the end of Friday. On Saturday, after breakfast, a shower and a shave I was walking towards the games hall when I met Sam who told me we were about to play test a new Martin Wallace game! This is what Stabcon is all about! I was very excited that we four humble gamers would be in on the ground floor of designing a game. The game, Northern Empires, is set in a mythical Britain where the humans battle each other, calling for help from elves, goblins, giants, etc and even help from other players.

Martin planned it as mostly a bidding game, but I like to think we added something with our plotting and bluffing. We certainly added to the running time, since Martin thought the first round was too long, and in the second round he removed a lot of the bidding and negotiation. It wasn't as much fun, and also there wasn't much reason to help each other unless you had nothing better to do with your troops. Some nice ideas, though, and Martin seemed happy that he'd learnt how to improve it.

Northern Empires
Joe 58
Adam 52
Martin 51
Sam 47
Andrew 41

After a quick bout of Elk Fest, Sam went off to do some paperwork from his job, and Adam, Joe and I proudly rolled out Joe's green felt Pax Porfiriana playing area and sat down to revolutionise Mexico! We got a few admiring glances, but we were mostly too busy trying to plough through Pax's dense forest of rules and text dressed up as a card game.

Sam came back, and we didn't seem to be anywhere near finishing. Adam tried to topple the government and I almost let him, but I couldn't just let him win because we were tired so I played a card to see off his revolt. Joe happily said "I think I can end this game!" The fact he said "end" instead of "win" gives a good idea of our priorities at that point. Shortly afterwards, Adam did win and we couldn't do anything to stop him even if we wanted to. And we didn't really.

How we felt after playing Pax Porfiriana

After two pretty full-on gaming experiences, my brain was frazzled. Certainly too tired to do any socialising. Instead we dug out Manila, the jolly game of betting and piracy, and followed that up with Arkadia. Joe thought that the theme was a bit tacked on, and it was really just an abstract game with a historical lick of paint.

Manila
Sam 142
Joe 138
Adam 108
Andrew 104

Arkadia
Adam 79
Andrew 73
Sam 72
Joe 56

After this was a series of quick two-player games, mostly against each other, with one other passer-by playing against Sam at Elk Fest. Joe taught me Battle for Hill 218, and Adam taught Sam Mr Jack in New York.

We also played what was, for me, the best new game of the Con (not that I played many), Hana-bi. In this game, each player had four cards held out so the others can see them. You are then allowed to give your fellow players information about what cards they have in their hands (either colour, or number, both not both at the same time). The idea is to lay down the hands in numerical order. It's quite a test of memory.

Joe successfully traded a green jelly baby for a Nurofen.

The reason for this sudden run of short games is because we were waiting to leave the hotel to have dinner with Martin Wallace. He really wanted to speak to Joe about some work he may have, but the rest of us managed to be invited too. He said he knew a nice gastro-pub near here, and that's why the four of us were heading down unfamiliar roads following a man in his car just because he designed games.

The pub he had in mind was too full, but the pub across the road wasn't, and luckily the food there was pretty good. We discussed games and no one said anything crass or embarrassing, so all in all a very nice evening. Martin then went home, so we relied on Adam's GPS to get us back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we played Railways of Mexico, where I eschewed the more sensible tactic of short tracks bringing in quick profit and instead went up to my eyeballs in debt building a cross-mountain railway because it looked nice. Meanwhile, the tense rivalry between Joe and Adam concerning this game continued unabated.

Railways of Mexico
Adam 47
Joe 46
Sam 27
Andrew 22

We ended the day with Hana-bi, using the tone of our voices to indicate if a card was good or bad and, my, what acting skills we have! Didn't complete it, though. Then we played Biblios and No Thanks and went to bed.

Sunday morning rolled around and Joe and I were up nice and early. While we had breakfast, Joe dropped a bombshell. He and Adam hadn't gone to bed at 12.30 like Sam and I. Instead they tried the two-player version of Le Harve, thinking it was a quickish half-hour simplified version of the 3+ player version. But it took them up until two o'clock to finish and Joe didn't seem keen on repeating the experience.

After breakfast we found ourselves in a deserted games hall. We played some Traders of Carthage, and Sam and Adam, when they arrived, battled again over Elk Fest. Then Joe got invited to play Pax Porfiriana with Martin Wallace and a couple of others. Adam, Sam and I rather cruelly chose a game to try and make Joe jealous, so we broke out Brass. With departure time in a couple of hours, this would be our last game of the Con.

Adam gave Sam a quick refresher of the rules which extended quite a long way into the game, and I think everyone consulted the rule book a couple of times during the game. I decided this was to be my last try on the Shipyard tactic, and I really went for it, building three and selling a fair amount of cotton to ports, too. Did no good.

Brass
Adam 205
Sam 164
Andrew 161


After we finished, and Joe came back from playing Pax, we packed up since we were already behind our schedule. Once back in the car, we mused thoughtfully about our lack of socialising. While it was nice to play so many games, if we weren't going to mingle, there really was no point in driving all the way to a hotel in Stockport to do it. Perhaps it was simply too close to the festive season this year. After festivities with families and friends, did we really need more festivities? And the level of nerdiness seemed a little higher than usual. Joe told me how twice he'd said "hello" to people and they'd just stared back at him.

While games conventions are great, we may have to reconsider next year's trip. If we're being honest, the timing's wrong, the location's wrong and I don't like the carpet. Perhaps we will feel different next year. We shall see.

The final Olympic style leaderboard includes all the little games we played, and it's hat's off to Adam, who came top of the pile!

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Adam	9	5	2
Sam	5	9	3
Joe	5	7	2
Andrew	4	3	4

From Cornwall to Cape Town

Tonight was a chance for Joe to catch up after his non-attendance at Tuesday's meet. Me and he met at Sam's for a little extra-time games night. After a minimal amount of discussion, we found ourselves in a mood for Tinners' Trail. Speaking for myself, after City Of Horror and Wallenstein, I was keen for a game which I knew and which didn't require any bargaining with your opponents at all.

Joe focused most of his resources on two mines, while Sam fretted over having one less mine than the rest of us. I went for the Adam-esque tactic of not scoring in a round in order to build up my reserves for a big push next round. Unfortunately the push wasn't big enough, as all of us were stymied by a stubbornly low price on copper, and a lack of tin in our somewhat soggy mines.

But the high point was when Joe had to roll for tin and copper prices. He casually leaned over to his bag and pulled out his esteemed dice arena. He used it to roll the three dice and then put it back, and we never saw it again. A cameo to rank amongst the best, I think

The Dice Arena in action

Joe 100
Sam 96
Andrew 93

After this was a new game! Coup. This may be a French word, but the game is set in Italy. Except it's not really, since it's a simple game of bluff and has no real sense of anything Italian. Each player has two cards and is allowed to take actions according to whatever cards they have. But those cards are hidden, allowing a player to take an action of a particular card that they don't have. If someone suspects them, they can challenge them. The loser of the challenge loses one of their two cards. The winner is last man with a card.

We played three games, and somehow managed to share the honours evenly.

1. Sam, Andrew, Joe
2. Andrew, Joe, Sam
3. Joe, Sam, Andrew

The night was still young (before 10) and Sam was eyeing the whiskey on the shelf. Another game was brought to the table along with the shot glasses: Africana.

Imagine The Cannonball Run set across the great continent of Africa except instead of racing from A to B, it's more like doing laps as we sped north then south then back in our search for adventures and new discoveries. I started badly, finding my adventures completed by other people before I got to the end, so I got an extra joker, and a bunch of discoveries and that really helped. Sam's early good form petered out towards then end, so by the end I really had no idea who had won.

A shadow falls across Africa...

When it came to counting up, it was very close with me and Sam tying for first, except that I thought we'd counted one category twice. I demanded a recount, and with good reason, as I squeaked into first with my last minute dash to Casablanca to get a necklace to go with my bongos giving me a set of discoveries that scored enough points to give me the win.

Andrew 40
Sam 39
Joe 37

We managed to squeeze five leaderboard games into one crazy evening. And, amazingly, we all came away with the same score on the form table. I scramble into third on the "best most recent score" rule, but it's tight at the top. Now, if we could just convince Steve to play five games in an evening...

						Points
Steve	2	1	1	1	2	7
Anja	1	2	3	3	1	10
Andrew	1	3	1	2	3	10
Sam	2	2	3	1	2	10
Joe	3	1	2	3	1	10
Adam	3	4	1	2	3	13
Hannah	1	1	5	5	5	17
Paul	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23
Chris	6	2	5	5	5	23

Rooms for Manoeuvre

Back in the eighties raves were convened at short notice, and attendees would have to jump through a series of logistical hoops - picking up signals, signs and prompts - to get their fix of tabs, dancing, and seeing deities in a field. So it was again last night, as Joe, Andrew and I plumped for a little gaming session late in the day. 

First, I had to get the kids to sleep, so after a couple stories and some singing I was scraping the ice off the car, headed to Andrew's via the shop for a bottle of pale ale (see: tabs). Once there we played a quick game of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small, shovelling crisps into our mouths and waving our hands in the air. We both left it a little late picking up animals, as though we didn't want their faeces and hoofprints muddying up the place. After a last minute rush on sheep, I triumphed due to my magnificent collection of horses (5) and timber-built cottage:

Sam 26

Andrew 11

we parked the XR3 in a lay-by and jumped the fence

Just as we were counting up, the call came in. Joe's table had been cleared of condiments and he was good to go. We were in the car moments later, checking the rear view mirror for the bizzies and listening to 808 State. 

Joe had pulled the oldest trick in the book: he'd got a game out of the box already, so our dreams of High Frontier were checked at the door. The game in question was Africana, and as players we took on the role of colonialists pillaging the continent in question during the 1800s. It was a little bit Ticket to Ride-with-imperialism, as we set off on adventures (by placing our pieces on the correct starting point on the map) and completed them by being the first one to arrive at the end point. If that sounds overly competitive, well, there are several adventures at any one point so you can get yourself on more than one to weight the odds in your favour - something Joe seemed very adept at, as he led the early running.

You can also collect pages from a book that reward you for a single destination (ie the starting point is immaterial) and during the game your options are one from picking up cards, travel (using cards), or buy a page from the book. Joining an adventure doesn't take an action, you just have to be in right place on the board. 

this is what Toto were actually singing about

It's nice to look at, and reasonably quick to pick up. It's also hard to judge who's winning - both Andrew and I assumed from an early stage that Joe was walking away with it, but our late surges saw us both overtake him, with me grabbing a narrow victory:

Sam 53

Andrew 45

Joe 44

There was time for a short game, and with zero debate we chose Biblios, a game we've played a lot of recently without tiring of it. This one felt a canny affair, and I certainly had the perception halfway through the game that I had far too much gold in my hand and not enough colours. But Joe didn't have enough gold, and sacrificed his green cards to pick some up - I'm not sure what happened to Andrew...

Sam 8

Joe 6

Andrew 0

And with that, we called it a night, wending our way to Micheldever services for a carton of orange juice and a blueberry muffin.*

* at this point I should probably confess - in case you haven't guessed - I never went to a rave, and my dancing is a bit like this.