Pie Faces

This week me and the boys spent a few days with Mark and Katie and their girls in Devon, with Sal joining us at the weekend. We arrived on Peppa's birthday!

eleven!

This meant that as well as the fresh sea air and salty breeze, there was also the occasional whiff of cardboard and margaritas, with Animals on Board hitting the table a few times, as well as Avenue, Heck Meck, Fuji Flush, and numerous plays of Insider, with Stan effortlessly deflecting attention when he was the insider. I was the insider twice and although I was collared in my first attempt, I successfully implicated a nearby infant in my second.

waves were great

Mark and I played Flamme Rouge with Peppa as well, which we both enjoy a lot - and Formula D also hit the table. Burgle Bros got played three times - a co-op where you attempt to pull off the heist of three safes on three floors of a building. Twice we failed, but on our third attempt Peppa, Stan and I made off with the loot - which happened to be a cat, if I recall. We had some gold bars too, but dropped them.

cheery burglars

At the end of the week everyone sat down to play Pie Face, the brilliantly-titled game of getting hit in the face with whipped cream. The cream goes onto a lever, you place your face in the target - there'c a chin rest - and then spin a wheel which denotes how many times you crank the lever.

pie....

At some point the lever will crank too far and spring up, depositing its load into your mush. But it's not a case of cranking too far, as sometimes it will spring up first time (as it did with me).

...face!

Katie actually wore swimming goggles to play, and I have photographic evidence. But I promised I wouldn't post it.

Lucky

I think everyone bar Joe and Lula took a hit. Joe, in fact, decided early on that Pie Face was an activity best observed rather than indulged. He might be right, but all the same - a lovely end to a lovely week. The view from the cabin was amazing.

complete with tiny man walking along balcony

Flip flip hurray

After last week's sparse turn out, we were somewhat back to normal with seven gamers: the host Sam and Joe, Martin, Matt, Katy, Ian and I.

From the start, we split into two groups. Katy had reserved a game of Lords of Vegas, and was all excited about it until it was pointed out that, given the recent tragedy, it might not be the most appropriate game to play. She went off the idea, but by then she had three opponents and so the game began.

Matt, Sam and I (and Stanley, too, in the latter stages of the game) played Flipships, the game that would be the board game version of Space Invaders except there's already a board game version of Space Invaders. I've never played it, but I can't imagine it's better than this.

It looked bad for us early on, with hoards of angry aliens bearing down on us. But it turns out that Matt is the last starfighter, picking off aliens with his short-range cannon, and taking two out with one flick.

He kept us alive long enough that we got to The Last Assault: the part of the game where all pretense of strategy goes out the window and we just target the Mother Ship. The Earth was on one health point, but we whittled the mother ship down and I, the last player to flip their ships, dealt the fatal blow with my penultimate ship! How we all cheered!

Earth Alliance 1
Alien Federation 0

Lords of Vegas was barely underway. They'd been tolerant of our ships overshooting the Mother Ship and landing on Sunset Strip, while they wheeled and dealed in Vegas.

Ian's early attempt at a sprawl, making a four-tile casino, blew up in his face when Katy drew the card that gave her the lot that Ian had sprawled into. Suddenly, that four-tile casino was hers. She made no attempt at hiding her glee, while Ian slipped into glum Eeyore-mode. He fell behind and never recovered.

Meanwhile, the other half of the table was not finished with War In Space. We chose Quantum for our big-ish game to last until the probable end of Lords Of Vegas.

Buy-in setting up Quantum, Sam brushed against a wine glass, sending it to the floor with a smash. I noticed that the first thing he wiped down was the board game box. Sam knows his priorities.

After more wiping and hoovering, we were ready to start. And what a game it was. We chose the Origin Of Thought map, an thanks to some good rolls, the early part of the game was mostly the three of us putting cubes down in the far-flung outer reaches. But then we were forced into the middle where it all kicked off.

I was one cube behind quite early on, and spend a lot of time fighting people to try and stop them. Sam used his Tactical card to good effect, often squeezing in a final attack at the end of his go. Matt, though, was relentless which came in very handy with a seemingly invincible 4-dice the Sam kept attacking but never destroyed.

The end, when it came, was swift and unexpected. I thought Sam was no threat, so focused my attacks on a clearly dangerous Matt. Then Sam launched a ship, and used Tactical to move it into a battle over an orbital point. A battle against Relentless Matt. But Sam won, and he moved into the space with allowed him to put down his final cube. If Casino Royale had been about Quantum, not Poker, that's how it would've ended.

Sam 0 cubes left
Matt 1
Andrew 2

By now, people were remarking on the strange Eighties turn that Sam's YouTube playlist had taken. He tried to put it right, but even then it veered back to Peter Gabriel via a period of Kate Bush.

By now Lords Of Vegas had finished. The final stages were notable by how close it was. Whenever I looked over, the first place space was always occupied by at least two counters.

Maybe the crucial moment was when Martin tried to reorganize a large casino, but failed and gave it to Joe, causing him to declare that the purple casino was cursed.

But was it so important? The Strip paid out for the last time, and Joe squeaked a win.

Joe 32 plus $49m
Katy 32 plus $23m
Martin 29
Ian 23

An odd game of LoV, with no brown casinos built at all. Was that why it was so close?

Then all seven of us played Bemused, the game that so successfully lived up to its name last week. Technically, it's only a six player game so Sam and I joined forces as a team.

The game itself seems like a simple card game with a bit of hidden secrecy regarding our gemina (a card telling us which other we are especially interested in) and how we feel about them (love, hate, disdain etc).

I'm not sure if the whole bit about getting into character is entirely necessary for the game, but we did enjoy a bit of role playing. Joe (painter) complained about Martin (dancer) visiting his studio and making snide remarks. Sam and I (thespians) we're offended by any critique of our stage version of Jaws, and people flung doubts at Ian (poet) telling him to get back to his garret.

Katy (singer) was not enough in character to give us a tune, but she did prove pivotal to the game. She drove Martin insane which curiously lead to the death of Joe. And then, right at the end of the game, she killed Matt who revealed his gemina was Katy, which gave her a Dread card, killing her off too. The only people left standing (albeit insane) was the Thespian. However, it seems that survival is a losing tactic in this game.

Katy 7 (died last)
Joe 7
Matt 5
Ian 5
Martin 5
Sam & Andrew 3

Then we reformed into two new groups. Martin, Ian and Sam banded together to defeat the Alien Federation again (they don't give up, I'll give them that) while Joe, Katy, Matt and I played Animals On Board.

My tactic was to get as many 5 value cards as I could, but it’s an optimistic one. I was soundly beaten by Joe’s and Matt’s set collection.

Matt 46
Joe 39
Andrew 36
Katy 35

As for Flipships, the aliens didn’t last long in the face of Ian’s, Martin’s and Sam’s withering death ray. “Good flicking, guys!” said someone as Ian put the fourth decisive hole in the mothership’s hull.

Earth Alliance 2
Alien Federation 0

They filled in until we finished Animals On Board with Eggs of Ostrich.

Sam 10
Martin 9
Ian 3

Then the night ended with Fuji Flush. It’s all luck of course. Wish I could remember more about it, but by now I was really quite drunk.

Ian 0 cards left
Katy 0
Matt 1
Sam 1
Martin 2
Andrew 2
Joe 2

After that, we bid our fond goodbyes. Or did we? Joe, who was driving, admitted that he couldn’t be arsed to give the Eastonites a lift across the M32, preferring to help out Katy and I since we live closer to his home (and also closer to Sam’s home, which may be where the argument began). Here’s hoping this doesn’t lead to a massive schism in the ranks. Let’s all love each other again next Tuesday!

Seven games, only five results

Due to the staggered times that some of the regulars would be arriving, twice this evening a game was chosen and set up, ready to begin, when a knock on the door signalled a change of plans. The two unlucky games were Santo Domingo (complete with rules explanation from Joe) and Coloretto.

But what about the games we did play? And who did we play them with? Joe hosted, with Katy, Ben, Martin, Andy and me the early arrivals. Ian and Adam were expected later. We began with a short roll & write game called Twenty One. In it each player has a unique score sheet showing a number of rows of coloured dice, each with a value. Working from the top, each player has to use the similarly coloured dice rolled that turn to write in number on these dice, with the proviso that that number must be lower or equal to the one on the sheet. Direct hits will score you a bonus when you complete the row. You can fill in as many as you like, but you must fill in one, even if it is to cross one off completely when the dice roll means you have no legal moves.

Joe had played a few two player games recently with one of his daughters, but I think the overall conclusion was that it doesn't work well with so many players. It's a bit of a luck-fest, since there's no way to keep tabs on what everyone wants.

Katy started well and probably thought she had it in the bag until Ben started cranking out rows in the twenties and thirties. And then Andy snuck in at the end to grab second.

Ben 97
Andy 85
Katy 84
Joe 81
Martin 73
Andrew 62

Not sure why it’s called Twenty One, though.

At this point we set up Santo Domingo, only to be stopped by Adam making his way slowly down the stairs. This gave Katy what she'd been begging for all evening: someone who'd support her request for Ponzi Scheme. "It's been six weeks!" She cried, trying to appeal to our better natures. With Adam on board, Ben followed and Joe agreed to be rules explainer. They set up at the bottom of the stairwell, for a change, and got to work.

Adam's beer

New gaming table arrangement

Martin, Andy and I pondered about a quick three player, and chose Coloretto. Martin was confused by Joe having two copies. He chose "the nice one" (Joe's words) but got confused mid-set-up by the different designs and put it away and then went back to the classic original. And then Ian arrived.

And so we embarked on the Grand Tour of Flamme Rogue. A three-stage road race that needs an app (or a printed score sheet) to keep track of the placings.

It was great. Among all the jostling in the peleton, Martin's sprinter seemed remarkably prime to exhaustion while my rouler often found himself stuck one space shorter than the card I'd played.

In one example, Ian cleverly put his leading cyclists, two abreast right at the start of a hill, meaning my two cyclists got stuck behind him. I called him "le coq blocquer" for his spoiling tactics, but he seemed unconcerned at my anguish

Ian's two cyclists stop me in my tracks

Talking of anguish, midway through our game, Katy called me over to the Ponzi game to take a photo of Joe losing quickly. I did so, but just as I left, Joe handed a black envelope over to Adam with a gleam in his eye. The game didn't end then, so I assume Joe's secret deal was a success.

Ponzi Scheme did finish before we did, though, with both Ben and Joe going bust in the same round.

Adam 10 points
Katy 6 points
Ben -$1
Joe -$200

“That was brilliant,” said Katy. They went on to play Animals on Board.

Flamme Rogue was hotting up, with the third stage in full swing. It was a bit of a nightmare, with a long winding uphill struggle towards the end. The final standings across all three stages were:

Martin 9
Andy 7
Andrew 5
Ian 3

Martin's unused cards

What an encounter. And really quite tense all the way through. No one seemed happy with their cards at any point. In fact, I seem to recall the moaning beginning at the first corner of the first race! But what is sport without moaning about fate? If you don’t complain, it just means you don’t care!

And Animals on Board ended

Katy 40
Adam 38
Joe 31
Ben 28

Then Ben departed. We tried to convince him to stay with Fuji Flush, but his willpower was too strong. Instead, the remaining seven of us watched as Joe got out the absinthe for our final game of the evening.

I was in a good position for the win fairly on, with three high cards in my hand. But I was thwarted and had to rely on good luck to get me some new high cards. I got a 19, and played it just after the deck was recycled since I assumed that the 20 must still be somewhere inside it. Right? Wrong. Ian had it! Le Coq Blocquer lived up to his reputation as he played the 20 that he’d only just picked up from the reshuffled deck!

But I couldn’t be stopped. Martin played 9 and I joined him. Katy played 11 to try and stop us, but then Ian beat her card. Frustratingly (for them, not us) Adam also had an 11! We would have been beaten had Ian not stepped in. But he did, so we did.

Martin 0
Andrew 0
Ian 1
Joe 1
Adam 3
Andy 3
Katy 4

Phew! What an evening. But, then again, aren’t they all?