It's only Rockleycon but I like it

Friday

Andrew and I (Sam) arrived at Rockley cottage in mid-Somerset first, and sniffed around the place finding it to our liking. Talking later with Chris and Paul, we realised we’ve been doing these weekends away almost every year since before the Millennium. Once upon a time we camped and played cards, but when Chris stumbled on Settlers and El Grande, there was a sea change toward a place with a roof and a table. This year we found ourselves in the village of Edington, and after pondering the finality and intractability of the passage of time, we broke out Castles of Mad King Ludwig and started building rooms.

Chris and Paul were new to this game of haphazard construction but picked up the rules very quickly – it’s such an intuitive game. Paul was last to be Master Builder, but shrugging off this economic hobbling and swiftly began accruing a shedload of money. He sped off up the scoretrack, never to be caught, though Andrew gave it a decent go. Chris was sidetracked by a bonus card for getting all types of rooms, a bit of a red herring bonus if his (and previous) experiences are anything to go by.

Paul 123
Andrew 109
Sam 97
Chris 89

After all that building we were pretty hungry. I started making a chorizo stew whilst the other three played the longest game of Red7 in the history of games of Red7. I cooked stew and rice and we ate it as the game went on hold.

They continued afterwards, promising the game was nearly over for several rounds whilst I entertained myself – and occasionally the others – playing Sausage and Mash with Agatha Christie.

Eventually Chris ended the game with his first victory of the weekend:

Chris 44
Paul 31
Andrew 29

Keyflower was next on the menu. This Chris’ current favourite and he was keen to show it off to Andrew and I, having played it in Bracknell and Reading Boardgame Social. He’s explained it better elsewhere on the blog, but essentially each player is building a village by bidding for hexagons to add to their existing settlement.

However as well as using meeples to bid for the card, you can also elect not to bid on your turn but to use the action on the hexagon instead. The winning bidder gets to keep all the meeples that have used that hexagon’s action, and it’s this delicate balance of getting stuff versus losing meeples at the game’s heart. It’s also a multiple-paths-to-victory game, and a bit of a head-scratcher. There’s plenty to mull over, but we played it with reasonable pace and I pulled off a surprise debut win:

Sam 64
Chris 63
Andrew 60
Paul 56

Next up was Take It Easy. Everyone loves this game for its thematic possibilities that have evolved from our original rhyming-couplets convention, combined with its ability to drive you crazy. Paul began with an unbeatable calling theme of James Bond gadgets, which he sustained brilliantly over the 21 tiles placed. Andrew followed this with a wistful take on things he missed from his childhood, and I did animated characters. I can’t remember what Chris’ one was. The scores felt almost secondary, but it was Chris again with a convincing win:

Chris 649
Sam 587
Andrew 583
Paul 550

By now it was nearly ten and we’d been playing (or learning rules) for the last six hours. When I suggested Alien Frontiers I didn’t expect two newbies to bite, but Paul and Chris were keen – or at least amenable. Rules-wise it’s pretty simple next to something like Keyflower though, so going through the rules only took ten minutes and we were away. I can’t remember much about it to be honest – toward the end my eyes were starting to feel a bit furry but with some luck from the dice I did enough to pull off a win:

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Chris 6
Paul 4

I was ready for bed, but those crazy guys tempted me to stay up for one last game: Kakerlaken Poker. I think everyone has played this by now and there are fairly diverse opinions on it. I think it’s great, personally, though I usually do really badly. Maybe something about my sleepy state made me more aware of when Andrew was lying.

Sam: Fewest cards
Paul: No pairs
Chris: One pair
Andrew: Loser with three of a kind!

A very enjoyable start to the weekend came to an end and we reeled off into bed. I recall it being funny anyway. It’s Saturday now and my main recollection is thinking “Shit, I hope Chris doesn’t bid on that hexagon for making gold” in Keyflower. But the others assure me it wasn’t all like that.


Saturday

Andrew here. The day began with Sam and I driving through the rain (perfect weather for board games) to the neighbouring village Bratton in a hopeful search for real coffee. In fact, they did stock it and Sam came out of the shop with a packet of filter coffee and freshly baked croissants, ruefully saying “Village shops aren’t the same as they used to be.”

Once we were back, we struggled with the cryptic crossword. Paul rose from his bed and we decided that the best way to get Chris to join us was if he heard the noise of happy gamers vigourously enjoying themselves. However, the best we could come up with this early was That’s Life.

Andrew 26
Sam 18
Paul 1

It was Paul’s first game, which goes some way to explain his score. Our plan worked, though, and Chris came down halfway through the game. Once a coffee was put down in front of him he was persuaded to join us in another game of That’s Life.

Andrew 24
Sam 17
Paul 13
Chris 12

After this, we cleared the table for the first of our big epic games of the day: Colonial. A huge epic of a game, taking in a vast swathe of history that lasts centuries. And that’s just reading the rules!

Ho ho.

Sam talked us through the rules, and we looked perplexed and puzzled. There were rebellions and war, diplomacy, and even the chance to abolish slavery. And that was just while reading the rules! (Oh, that joke never gets old)

But seriously, we decided to play a shortened version (up to eight prestige points instead of ten) but we explored as much of the game's options as possible. Sam got hit by a rebellion (thanks to me) and a war (thanks to Paul) but, thanks to never having got into debt, Sam was able to end the game the moment he got eight prestige points.

Sam 8
Andrew 6 and some debt
Chris 6 and more debt
Paul 4

But it was very much a training game. Paul deliberately did odd things, just to see what happened, and Chris deliberately had terrible luck when rolling dice just to entertain us. In fact, his fortune with the dice was so bad that when he finally succeeded in exploring Australia we all applauded.

It was a good game. At least I enjoyed it but then, I do like a game with a bit of a narrative to it. It felt weighty, with its nicely illustrated map and its themes of empires rising and falling. Not sure when we’ll get the chance to play it again, though. It certainly needs some sort of player guide, too.

Then we had lunch of sliced meats, cheeses, potato omelette, burningly hot quiche and dips. This was all to get us in the mood for Amerigo, another epic to stretch us to our limits.

It was new to Paul and Chris, and neither Sam nor I had played in a while so the game was dotted with confusion of the rules. I can’t honestly say it was a madcap bag of laughs, except when someone put a healthy handful of cubes into the top of the tower and only three dribbled out of the end. This happened more than once. Oh, how we laughed.

I exploited a new scoring rule that Sam and I were previously unaware of, scoring well for settlements on completed islands. It was enough to nab me the win.

Andrew 211
Sam 185
Chris 172
Paul 168

Then we went for a walk down to the local farm shop where I bought some local micro-brewed beer (as if we didn’t have enough alcohol already) and then we set off for a brief walk through some of Edington’s finest footpaths.

As we wandered past farms, we imaged the knowledgeable conversations we could have with the farmers thanks to our expertise in Agricola.

“You know, if you fence that field in, you could keep twice as many horses in there.” And “I see you’ve got a stone farmhouse. What other improvement did you get when you built that?”

Then, as it was threatening to rain again, we returned to the cottage, took turns having showers and our next game was another AP-laden Eurogame: Castles of Burgundy. In my notes for this evening, I wrote that CoB is “the fun game of having a plan and then forgetting it by the time it gets to your turn.” Sam went crazy on bonuses for shipping, and got a comfortable win. I came last, behind two newcomers to the game.

Sam 199
Chris 184
Paul 165
Andrew 163

After an excellent curry made by Chris, we decided to play something that was a bit more fun: Incan Gold! Chris was the big winner here, staying on in the first temple by himself, and getting a 9, an 11 and a 17 all to himself. A just reward for his cooking skills.

Chris 68
Andrew 54
Sam 31
Paul 6

By now, the cryptic crossword had bothered Sam and I so much that we even texted Joe, who kindly lend a hand to a particularly annoying clue. As for the games, we chose Raj as a similarly light yet tense way to pass the time. Sam won the first two rounds, but after Chris commented on how well Sam was doing, his game collapsed and he fell back into third.

Andrew 58
Chris 47
Sam 39
Paul 33

Following this, we chose 7 Wonders. A perennial favourite that we’ll still be playing in the old person’s home where we will surely end up. I went for sciences, but it wasn’t enough to beat Chris’ smorgasbord of decent scores across many categories.

Chris 61
Andrew 55
Sam 52
Paul 44

The evening was progressing nicely. We had no appetite for a big game, so we ploughed on with more simple yet tortuous games. No Thanks was given a couple of turns.

Andrew 16
Sam 32
Paul 39
Chris 75

Sam 23
Andrew 32
Paul 48
Chris 63

And then Kakerlaken Poker was dragged out again, with Paul trying to pass off most of his cards with the joyous cry of “It’s a kakerlaken!” It didn’t work.

Sam 1 pair
Andrew 2 pairs
Chris 3 pairs
Paul 4 of a kind

At five to ten Paul had a hankering for a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and since our bedtimes were flexible, we were amenable. I got shitty bonuses, made all the more annoying by me throwing away a bonus card that scored money and I ended with over 50,000 marks.

Sam 120
Paul 102
Andrew 98
Chris 85

And we ended with Timeline, the general interest edition. I can’t remember much about this at all.

Paul 0 cards left
Chris 0 cards left
Andrew 1 card left
Sam 1 card left

Finally we went to bed. Just as I was putting my head down, I got a text! Sam had just realised an answer on the cryptic crossword.


Sunday

Early morning, while listening to an old pirate radio broadcast I’d found on the internet, Chris and I played Biblios. It was close, and I entered the auction round with barely any money at all. I managed to win, though, thanks to Chris not pushing me on an auction for an “adjust two dice down” card. If he’d taken it instead of me, the result would have been very different and I’d be alive today.

Andrew 8
Chris 5

Sam and Paul came down from upstairs, and they blearily looked at the quiz in yesterday’s Guardian, unable to face the cryptic again. Instead we went for a light breakfast followed by a light-to-medium game of Istanbul. My recent form on this game has been nothing short of shocking, but when I got a “Use Sultan's Palace twice” bonus card my strategy was already decided for me, and it worked.

Andrew 5
Sam 4
Paul 3 + cash
Chris 3

With time pressing, we finished what was left in the fridge while playing Tsuro. And what an exciting game it was as we all ducked and weaved, trying to find a quiet corner to see out the game while the other players pick each other off. Paul and I were face to face on one square. I couldn't kill him and survive, so I put down a tile that sent us both around the board... to the same square somewhere else! Amazing scenes. But then we were stuck and both died on Paul's next turn, leaving Sam alone on the board.

1. Sam
2= Paul
2= Andrew
3. Chris

Our last game was Verflixxt! Or That's Life. We played it through twice using all the tiles. The first game ended as

Sam 31
Andrew 15
Paul 6
Chris 2

Then in the second game, Paul requested that all the clovers be right at the end. So we put the guards on the largest minus numbers instead of on the guards (otherwise it would have been impossible to play). Chris quickly sped off, hoping to get to the clover tiles first. It looked like a good idea at first, but he couldn't quite get enough clovers to make it work.

Paul 20
Andrew 13
Sam 12
Chris -8

And with that, games were packed away and cars were loaded up.

Chris departed for home and while Paul was having a shower, Sam and I tried a lightning fast game of Trivial Pursuit (house rule: roll two dice, may move either value or the combined value) and Sam was winning six cheeses to four when Paul came down and it was time to end the weekend once and for all.

Good show, chaps. A great occasion. I'm already looking forward to the next.

The Treaty of Versailles

The games began early: my working day ended at about 2pm when I had to dash off and take Finn into Little Joe's class for a visit. That done, we returned home and the boys requested Cube Quest. They both played me and I won both games! If that sounds a bit like Competitive Dad, Stan normally beats me at everything, a fact he proved when we moved on to Alien Frontiers. I did chip in and help him quite a bit, but even so a 7-2 victory to him was a bit of a trouncing.

Joe goes for the Inverse Corridor set up whilst I play the phalanx

The evening arrived, and so did Ian and Andy: the plan was to play Versailles. I had sworn off new games for a bit, but then I got an email saying I had money in my Paypal account, which of course is only good for one thing.

Versailles is thematically similar to Pillars of the Earth, as each player contributes to the building of the palace (or cathedral, in Pillars) - in this instance for the pleasure of King Louis XIV, who is making his stately way toward the site to survey the finished article. Mechanically it's a little like Mancala-style games, where you move pieces clockwise around the board. Rather than worker-placement, it's worker-movement. Each player starts with their guys set up on the board, and on their turn they move one of them (or two, if they can afford it) to a new place and take the benefit that place gives them.

Hand not included

As you'd expect some of these are the stuff you need to build a palace of opulence: wood, marble, gold. There was a place to get your ornate decorations made and a place to buy the tile (theme gets a bit shaky here) that you'll then try and build in the centre of the board above - like Alhambra or Carcassonne, tiles have to match each other. Unlike those games, you can get screwed by people deliberately building a part of the palace that means your own tile won't fit anywhere, and is good for nothing but a paltry point at the end of the game.

However there's also the Alchemist Guild, the classic euro way of saying the game wasn't tricksy enough so we added this. Here you can go up one of three tracks and they get you the following benefits - extra resources when you get resources, extra resources when somebody else gets resources (as long as you have at least one worker there) and actioning the tile-buying, decoration-buying, and construction areas whenever someone else does - again, as long as you have a worker there yourself when this happens.

Andy twigged as to the power of this last track early on and utilized it very well - letting Ian and I move our guys from place to place whilst he picked up the benefits. Stanley, who had roamed downstairs to join us, went into the front room to do some printing - so the grown-ups were playing a game whilst the 7-year-old busied himself with making artwork...

Versailles, then. I would go so far as to say this was a really good game - for the first hour, that is.

What happened after this hour was a real rarity on GNN - the game kind of ground to a halt, to the extent that we all agreed (treaty, see? I'm here all week) to abandon it.

The problem was that the game ends immediately when one of three conditions are met: the palace is finished, you run out of palace tiles, or the King arrives. He's been edging closer all game, in theory.

But in our game we needed a particular tile to finish the palace, and it was neither visible on the board nor, as we subsequently discovered, in existence at all. So we couldn't finish the palace, and all the tiles available for buying were only worth a solitary point. The King was miles from arriving and looked like he'd stopped to examine the flora en route. Our only option on the board was to travel around slowly accruing more resources to get a few more points at the end: the worst kind of gaming exercise, really. I suggested we bail and Andy and Ian readily agreed.

The king may have been expecting a bit less garden

It struck me as ironic that a game about architecture had such an inherent flaw in the design. As we remarked last night, it's all about how the tiles come out and get placed. If those metaphorical cards had been dealt differently, we might have wrapped it up half an hour sooner and been very positive about the game today. Andy had done his homework and said this had been commented on in BGG - I'll look into it as there is enough there to merit keeping the game if there is a fix.

I think we can still call it leaderboard though. Ian - despite his predictions - managed second place when his decorations allowed him to sneak past me in the final scoring. Andy was way off in front:

Andy 82
Ian 64
Sam 63

The only light relief during the final stages of this game was Finn's remarkable - even for him - insistence on changing chairs to whichever had been most recently vacated. Even giving him his own chair didn't resolve this.

That's where I was sitting

We packed away whilst debating possible ways to make Versailles not outstay its welcome, then I left the guys to choose the next game whilst I went to the toilet, cursing my impulses (in buying games, not weeing). When I returned, they were setting up Biblios!

I was surprised to hear Andy was new to it so I did my best to explain the workings. Andy refreshed his memory by checking the rules throughout, and discovered yet another rule we've been playing wrong! In the auction phase after the active player flips the card, the bidding starts with the person to their left. 

Ultimately it made no difference. I kept bidding or passing immediately anyway, giving away my plans. Considering I'd only had a couple of beers I was curiously tipsy during Biblios - I twice announced what card I was putting in the auction pile during the Gift phase. Still, I did enough to claim the Mr Biblios crown, as Ian grabbed the blues and browns and I, wriggling out of explainer's curse, got everything else. 

Sam 7

Ian 5

Andy 0

There was still time for more game. Nobody wanted anything long though so even Love Letter was eschewed in favour of No Thanks. Ian ran away with the first game whilst Andy and I fought over scraps:

Ian 34

Sam 45

Andy 58

And it was so quick, we played again. This time Ian went for chains that didn't quite link:

Sam 27

Andy 35

Ian 65

And that was that. 

						Points
Adam	4	1	1	1	1	8
Sam	1	2	1	3	2	9
Andy	2	3	3	1	2	11
Ian	3	1	2	2	1	11
Katy	2	4	1	4	1	12
Hannah	1	1	3	4	5	14
Martin	5	3	2	2	3	15
Joe	3	5	3	3	2	16
Steve	3	3	3	4	5	18
Matt	6	2	2	6	6	20
Andrew	7	1	3	4	7	22
Anja	6	5	3	4	5	23
Dirk	5	5	5	5	5	25

My insatiable appetite for playing right now isn't quite enough to knock Adam off the top of the form table, but I move up to second. Andy and Ian are close behind, moving ahead of Katy, Hannah and Martin. 

Ailing Frontiers

Where would we be without games? Just a bunch of people, aged thirty plus, sitting around a table and staring at each other. Or rather, sitting around two tables. For tonight GNN split into two groups in two different places. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Both Joe and Sam were housebound this Tuesday, so Martin went to Joe’s for some two-player Wir Sind Das Volk, the game that tries to work out what Honecker did wrong, apparently.

We, on the other hand, were four in number: host Sam, and Ian, Andy and me all braving the elements.

Our first game was Alien Frontiers, undergoing a bit of a revival. Sam and I had both played it recently and enjoyed it, and Andy mentioned on the blog that he liked it, so it was only a case of teaching Ian and we were on our way into galactic super-space with knobs on!

Well, all I can say is that I got an abrupt reminder of why it got traded away in the first place. In a four player game, there is a lot of waiting between goes, with no opportunity to plan ahead. I found it really quite dull. Waiting that long to roll some dice which won’t be what you want is no fun at all.

Andy 10
Sam 5 (wins on Alien Tech cards)
Ian 5
Andrew 4

After this, we looked for something to fill an hour or two. We chose Ra and what a unique game it was. Not just because I won (my first leaderboard win on Ra) but because of the very few successful bids that Andy made. He made none in the first round, two in the second, and then none again in the final round. Unsurprisingly, he scored fewer points than he began with.

I managed to get my Nile to flood each round, and Sam got the Pharaoh bonus later in the game. Ian had a few buildings.

Andrew 43
Sam 33
Ian 21
Andy 8

We ended with a rousing game of Love Letter. It was first to three. We bluffed and battled and at one point it was Sam 1, Andy 1, Andrew 1, Ian 0. But then the Ian machine shifted into gear (ie, poured himself another whiskey) and won three in a row, sealing the win.

Ian 3
Andy 1
Andrew 1
Sam 1

And all of this means that the form table looks a little bit something like this...

						Points
Katy	1	3	2	2	1	9
Andrew	2	1	4	1	1	9
Martin	2	2	1	3	1	9
Jon	2	2	2	2	1	9
Matt	4	1	2	1	2	10
Sam	2	2	2	2	3	11
Andy	2	4	1	2	2	11
Ian	1	3	3	3	2	12
Hannah	3	3	2	2	2	12
Joe	2	1	3	3	4	13
Chris	2	5	1	1	4	13
Anja	2	1	1	5	5	14
Adam	3	2	2	4	4	15
Steve	3	3	5	1	3	15
Stanley	3	2	4	1	5	15

Pips in Spaaaace!

It was Monday, and despite the fact that tomorrow we’d be knee deep in cubes and cards at the regular GNN meet, Sam and I met up for a little light box-based entertainment.

We began with Alien Frontiers. It appeared briefly on the GNN landscape three years ago, but failed to get an audience. Recently, Sam bought another copy, and so he and I decided to try it again. Since we knew the rules (I needed a brief refresher), it was simplicity itself to set it up and get going.

It was a pretty fast-moving game. We rolled, blocked each other and tried to colonise the planet before the other did. It was fun, and that can’t just have been due to our early decision to get shit-faced. As a semi-light game, it does okay. It’s by no means a main event, but may slip into that nether region of games that fit into an awkward forty-five minutes at the end of an evening.

It was pretty close throughout, with Sam just getting down his last colonies in the turn before I was about to end the game.

Sam 11
Andrew 10

Next we decided to be thematically consistent, and pulled Quantum down from the shelves, for more dice-based space exploration. This game of inter-galactic explosions needs no introduction. I chose the map, which means I have no excuse for what happened next. Sam swanned around the map placing cubes, while I desperately battled his cubes, trying to postpone the inevitable. A whitewash.

Sam 0 cubes left
Andrew 4 cubes left

With enough time for one more game, we went for the most predictable choice we could make: 7 Wonders. No one could accuse us of foregoing old favourites in favour of the flavour of the day (and that’s very nearly a new tounge twister) when 7 Wonders is such a regular to our table.

As usual, Dirk went for sciences. I got the Statue of Zeus for my wonder, and I chose the side that allowed you to copy a neigbouring guild. This is pretty powerful in a two player game, because if you can’t build a guild, there’s a chance that Dirk can, and you still get the benefit.

I got three guilds in the final round, along with one copied from Dirk to give me a huge 32 points. Plus, I got 18 for military, which got me first place. Dirk's sciences (26 points) could not hold off Sam’s blue buildings (39 points) and so Sam avoided the ignominy of losing to Dirk.

Andrew 56
Sam 52
Dirk 47

The Final Frontier

Since bagging a copy of the much sought-after Alien Frontiers, I've played a two player and a three player game, neither of which have totally wowed me or the other players involved. There seems to be a very slow build-up, while the first few colonies are laid, and the area benefits taken. Then, just as players players start jostling for majority on the map, and things begin to get interesting, the game ends.
Before I totally dismiss it as 'not for me', I wanted to play a full four-player game, and had heard of a place where I would find no shortage of willing participants. And so tonight, for the good of Games Night News, I girded my loins, and set out for the wilder, hairier shores of geekdom, the Area 51 monday night games club.
It is a fairly daunting place - I'm well out of my comfort zone among the hard-core geeks, and always spend the first 20 minutes fighting a strong urge to run.
Tonight this urge was more powerful still with the knowledge that I could escape to the warm comfort of Sam's for a four-player game of London; but I had made my decision, and was determined to stick it out.
After 10 minutes of looking over people's shoulders, watching them play all manner of terrifying-looking games ("More sex demon acolytes!" one woman cried as I hurried away), a game of Billabong (Australian rules draughts, as far as I could tell) ended, leaving three people looking for something to play, and I stepped in brandishing the box.
The four of us were Becky (a doctor), John (a german student at Manchester) and Luke (a physics student at Cardiff), with me teaching the rules, and within ten minutes we were off and running; AF remains one of the most straightforward games to teach.
So how was the fabled four-player game?
Well, as predicted there was much more jockeying for majority on the board, from early on. There was also a lot of semi-aggressive card-play, something we had largely ignored in previous games. It is always a fairly tight game in terms of points, but Becky got an early lead, and once she'd nicked my Alien Monument and had a full compliment of ships, her win was assured, with 11 points. I came second with 7, and I can't remember how the other two placed.
Everyone seemed to like it, especially Luke, who pronounced it more fun than Catan, but I'm afraid I remain ambivalent. It's too finicky, there's loads of chin-scratching about what to do with your dice and cards; the cards can have powerful effects on the colonies, but only really once the colonies are down there, and the pacing just feels . . . off to me.
There's a real vogue at the moment for games where you roll your dice and then decide what to do with them, whereas in a game like Stone Age, you decide what you're going to do, and then roll the dice - much simpler, and in the end, more fun.

Still, I did what I set out to do; I made it to Shell City, I rode the Hasselhoff - I'm not in any great hurry to return, but ohh my god Ascending Empires on the next table looked like so much fun - someone's going to have to get it or I might have to go back there!!

Once around the kitchen table in eight millenia

Six gamers gathered in the familiar surroundings of Sam’s kitchen for this week’s games night. A night that would encompass building step pyramids, the growth of London and colonizing new planets.

We split into two groups of three players with Sam, Jonny and Quentin giving themselves the task of rebuilding London after the Great Fire in Martin Wallace’s London. Meanwhile, I was up against leaderboard high-fliers Adam and Joe as we set up Alien Frontier: the game of space exploration according to the rules of Yahtzee.

Adam was new to the game, but quickly built up a fleet of ships (ie, dice) to expand his victorious empire. Joe could’ve stopped him, but he forgot he had a plasma cannon. Meanwhile, I underused my cards and played an unfocused game. The most fun was inventing advertising slogans for the various parts of the planet ("Come to the Heinlein Plains: Where the trading is always... one to one"), and describing them in the dulcet tones of a sales assistant ("Is this your first time at the Asimov Crater, sir?").

After the game ended, there was a brief autopsy on the game, and we found it lacking. It seemed to be all about the mechanism, and little to do with interaction. I wondered if it wasn’t simply too short. By the time all of the areas of the planet are colonised, there’s only a short period of battling for supremacy before the game ends. Joe decided it could go in his next trade, and it’s hard to disagree.

Adam 11
Joe 8
Andrew 7

Since, by this time, London was still only in the 1800s we began a game of Roll Through The Ages. Thinking back, we should’ve steered clear of another dice game after "Mr Boxcars" won at Alien Frontier, but instead we dug it out of the games cupboard and set up the game.

Adam, true to his laissez-faire attitude to the plague in Notre Dame, was adept at rolling pestilence, hitting myself and Joe. Mostly myself after Joe invented medicine while I discovered quarrying. Apart from that, my tactic mostly relied on expecting Adam’s luck with the dice to run out any second now. This didn’t happen. Joe had almost no food for most of the game, but still managed to come second.

Adam 35
Joe 17
Andrew 11

By now London had finally reached the twentieth century and the evening came to an end. I’ll leave one of them to write up their adventures in the big smoke before I add the leaderboard.

GNN Reports: On the other side of the table Quentin and Jonny were discovering what it's like to experience a game without Joe around to explain it properly. I covered the rules as best I could without really clarifying the theme very well. Then I jumbled up the decks during my 'example' hand and subsequently we had to replay the first round...

Anyway, despite some confusion over building and running cities, we managed to play the game and everyone got the hang of managing poverty so well we finished with equal points. But Jonny hadn't generated a lot of victory cards in his cities, and Quentin had been hampered by his card options in terms of making cash, and was left with three unpaid loans. Final scores:

Sam 65
Quentin 45
Jonny 43

A great result for me, but I'm sure at least partly down to my shortcomings as a game guide! Nevertheless both Jonny and Quent seemed to enjoy it so hopefully it'll feature again soon.

As for the leaderboard, such is the curious nature of the Q system, despite Adam coming first twice and Joe coming second twice, both see their points ratio dip slightly.

The leaderboard...

	Played	Points	Ratio
Adam	7	38.5	5.5
Joe	7	28.5	4.07
Sam	6	24.5	4.08
Andrew	7	20.5	2.9
Jonny	3	13	4.3
Steve	3	9.5	3.16
Quentin	1	4	4
Matilda	1	1.5	1.5

By the way, Adam did offer to have Roll Through The Ages as a non-leaderboard game. And he said this after he'd won which was very gallant of him. But when I saw it actually lowered his point ratio, I put it back in.

And I can't believe I forgot to mention Jonny's spicy nuts!

Extra Curricular Activities

As sometimes happens, a second window of gaming opportunity opened this week, though only two people were available to appreciate the view through it, Andrew and Joe (me).

It was the perfect opportunity to give Alien Frontiers a spin — the much-lauded dice-based fifties-sci-fi-themed first-game-from-clever-mojo-games-last-year.

Easy enough to pick up, and a very clean, unfussy design. It plays fairly fast, but with two seemed a little underwhelming. The spaces are limited in the two-player game, to reflect the spaces that would be taken by your opponents in a three or four player game, but what's missing is the screwage those two extra opponents would deal out. It is a game where you can be pro-actively aggressive (albeit in a relatively gentle way), and shut down your rivals, and with two of us, being fairly nice to each other at that, it lacked ooomph. I won by a point - but there was some too-ing and fro-ing, it was nice and close.

But it didn't outstay it's welcome, and so we decided to return to medieval Paris for a go at two-player Notre Dame. We had both played this once before, and I took a right pasting, coming fifth in a five player game. I'd learned from my mistakes, and went in to the game determined not to run out of money or influence cubes. I aped Adam's winning strategy from the last game, of going to the park early, which gives you an extra VP whenever you take VPs - it's a very useful spot. It also helps keep the rats at bay early on.

This time Andrew seemed to make a similar mistake to me in the last game — caring about his people. He went to the hospital a few times to keep the plague level down; but by mid game was out of money, and unable to hire those all-important extra people.

I really like Notre Dame — I love the card-drafting, and you're not really dealing with any big numbers — you've only ever got a few coins and cubes at your disposal, and a choice of three cards (of which you only play two anyway) each turn.

Despite the big imbalance in points (Andrew was clearly lagging by the mid-game, with no real chance to catch up) it makes a good two-player game, one which would be far more tightly fought if we both had a few more games under our belts. And it took just under an hour to play, incuding set-up.

In some ways, I'm more keen to get Notre Dame to the table again than Alien Frontiers — that might change once we play a four player game of the latter, I guess. Just goes to show, newer and shinier isn't necessarily better. Sometimes some scuffed bits of cardboard and a few wooden cubes are all you need to have fun. Oh, and a well-designed game.