Swapping Secret Santa for Secret Hitler

Big T was first to arrive at my house for Christmas games yesterday, as we kicked off a few hours earlier than usual at 1pm. Joe was hot on his heels so after a brief catch-up and coffee, we reasoned that it would be silly not to start playing games, so we did. Joe brandished Take Time at us and we jumped in.

This is a fun little Mind-esque game of playing numbered cards around a clock face, with the not-insignificant caveat that each segment, going clockwise, must be of the same or higher value than the one previous. Add in a couple of extra wrinkles and that's pretty much it: but with no communication allowed after you've seen your cards, success proved occasionally elusive. Did we succeed on that final round? I don't actually remember now, but either way, Katy arrived and we shifted gears into sentient vegetable heroism with Potato Man. 

There was just time for a one-round game (won by me) before, as if summoned into being by Adam - compare above and below images - Pete turned up. 

We played another single-round game (won by Big T) and then Adam H and Laura arrived, so we split into teams and broke out Phantom Ink. Joe and I were the clues, with Joe's team at a slight numerical disadvantage (Joe, Pete, Big T) as I clued to Laura, Katy and Adam H. 

Our first word was Pancake, and despite my spelling confusion, our team's question of Who would dislike it was very helpful as I started <mis>spelling CELI(AC). When asked for a nickname I clued CRE(PE) and from there it was a straightforward victory. We went again with the Adams now clueing for the same teams, and midway through the game Chris arrived to bolster the numbers, joining with the short-staffed Pete/Joe/Big T gang. Unfortunately we lost our most coherent decoder shortly after, as Laura had to go off and escape from a room in Cabot Circus, and Katy and I spent most of our time looking at each other in confusion as Adam regarded us with a mix of long-suffering sympathy and crestfallen disappointment. We did figure out Snow, but our shot in the dark simply negated any opposition doubts and they guessed, correctly, the answer was Snowball. 

We realised with a large afternoon stretching before us we could now play some big ol' chunkers. Big T proffered The Barracks Emperors and Joe Chris and Katy leapt in to join him. I played the Christmas sympathy card to get River of Gold on the table and Andy Mosse arrived to find himself dealt in to it, charitably sitting down to an immediate rules-teach. 

In River of Gold, we're sailing up and down (well, repeatedly down, thanks to Rokugan's curious looping geography) the river and establishing trade routes. Despite the madness of the board, River of Gold has a certain simplicity to it: there are only three actions to choose from: move your boat, build a building or deliver to a customer. The goal is to move yourself up the six influence tracks to the east of the river, and the main difficulty we found with the game is remembering to roll the die at the end of your turn instead of the beginning. 

Andy took the laurels here, with Pete second and then myself and Adam lagging a short way behind. 

At the other end of the table, the Barracks were echoing to the sound of a lot of profanity, with Katy summoning her insult of choice for Chris as he did something or other she objected to. There seemed to be a lot of objecting, in fact - the game is a trick-taker of sorts but with a board where cards are laid and prizes - using the word loosely - to be surrounded and claimed. This chicanery continued as River of Gold finished and we began playing Poison. 

This was also new to Andy, but he took to it with his standard zen vibes and nearly followed his River of Gold triumph with a second win, but I just pipped him. 

Sam 13

Andy 14

Adam H 22

Pete 34

Around now the Barracks Emperors concluded as well, and Katy celebrated her debut victory by going off for chips, abetted by Joe and Adam. When they returned, Andrew was with them as well, like the fourth wise man, proffering a festive bottle of ketchup. We paused for dinner. 

After that, Joe suggested Secret Hitler and we split into liberals and fascists. Katy wanted to know if, should she be dealt into the fascists team, she could sabotage it. Joe admitted there was no rule against it, but it could get confusing. And in fairness the game was confusing enough with Joe and I not spotting that each other were fascists and me being convinced Chris was, even though he hadn't opened his eyes. I knew Katy wasn't because she seemed to be enjoying herself.  

I'm still not 100% clear on how the game works, but I did grasp that we all take turns being the president, and the president nominates a chancellor, and then there's a vote and then the president gets some cards and passes two to the chancellor to choose one of, and after this either a liberal or fascist law gets passed. There's enough fog over proceedings that nobody can be totally sure who is who, and Andy found himself shot dead simply for having the temerity to chat in chambers. Then Katy shot Big T who was Hitler and so the liberals won - perhaps for the best in these popularist times, and certainly for Katy's disposition. 

Laura was returning imminently so we split into three groups, with the Fellowship trick-taker, Babylonia and Mille Fiori spread across the table. But now I will hand the reins to our default note-taker and blogger, Andrew.

*

I was walking towards Sam’s house when I was caught up by Joe, Katy and Adam T. I was astonished as the coincidence of all of us arriving at the same time but this was soon explained when I saw the bags full of portions of fish and chips. I had got here just as people were breaking for food.

I had just eaten, so I watched while the gaming table vanished beneath unwrapped papers and various deep fried comestibles. The chat revolved around games, trying to think which games would work with non gamers. Joe told us about a game where you’re given a word and have to guess if it’s a Tolkein character or an antidepressant.

After the food was finished and the table cleared, Secret Hitler was brought to the table. As Sam has already said, it’s a social deduction game, it was capable of allowing all of us to play. In this game, the liberals have to detect the fascists - as determined by drawing an envelope with your secret identity within. And if that weren't enough, one lucky (?) player gets to be Hitler.

I'll be honest, I didn’t really get it. I was a fascist and, as such, I knew that my partners were Joe and Sam but it later transpired that Sam didn't know about Joe, since they were sitting next to each other and couldn’t see each others’ secret signal at the start of the game . Additionally,  Chris kept passing fascist policies. Maybe he was also a fascist and I hadn't noticed, I thought, or maybe he's passing fascist policies because they give the player a little special action. But then Chris, using a special action, assassinated the liberal Andy M, so then I was quite convinced he was a fascist and I’d missed it. Sam voted against himself as President. “I changed my mind,” he explained. I was bemused.

In the end, Katy was the one who identified Adam T as Hitler and killed him, and the game ended with the liberals victorious. It was quite sedate, apparently. Previous (non GNN) games have been quite rambunctious, we were told. Maybe it was the chips, but it was all very low key. I had no idea what was going on at all.

Next, several people adjourned to the front room to choose a game, and Pete came back with a £10 note in his hand, making us all wonder what was going on in there. We hear from Laura that she’s on her way and so we devise a system in which we set up three games and she can join any of them once she arrives.

The choices in this devillishly complex method was Fellowship of the Ring (Adam T, Chris and myself), Babylonia (Sam, Adam H and Pete) and Mille Fiori (Hoe, Katy and Andy M). Although once Laura had arrived, both Fellowship and Babylonia had begun so she joined Mille Fiori. She seemed happy enough.

In Fellowship, the three of us took on Chapter 16 - a tricky hand for a trio containing two relative newbies. But we persevered at Adam’s behest (he wanted to complete all 18 Chapters before the end of the year) and, after three attempts we nailed it! I was quietly smug and keen to try Chapter 17, but Adam checked the game and discovered the next bit was Chapter 16a and looked like quite a long endeavour.

Since Babylonia had finished at the same time as us we decided to leave 16a to another day.

Sam 163

Adam H 156

Pete 127

I remember remarking that Sam’s position on the board didn’t look like a winning one - a couple of small disparate areas, until Pete pointed out all the cities Sam had taken with his strategy.

Mille Fiori was still in full flow, and I heard Joe take a turn that went on for so long that he apologised halfway through.

The six of us played Fuji Flush and I was quietly confident, since this game is - for some reason - my strongest game. Back when we had a Division charting our results, I had a win rate of 50% which is odd for a luck-based game that usually plays five or more. I didn’t say anything, in case I made a target for my back. Plenty of dick points on display and poor old Pete seemed to have a hand made up entirely of 2s and 3s. And I won again, adding my final card - a 7 - to an already existing chain of 7s.

Next up, the six of us bided our time with 6nimmt. Adam T was hesitant to play, but didn’t have the energy or inclination to veto it. And a good thing too, as he ended up a comfortable winner.

Adam T 12

Pete 23

Adam H 24

Sam 32

Andrew 39

Chris 41

And talking of comfortable winners, here are the results from Mille Fiori.

Joe 239

Katy 217

Andy M 167

Laura 154

Joe, Andy M and Adam T left at this point and the six of us played Ito, using the chevrons from Fun Facts as a handy way of keeping track of everyone’s numbers. The categories were vague enough for some details to be clarified. Is a “popular villain” one who is generally beloved by the public, or just very well known? Good job we did check, because we got that one 100% right.

Another curio that this game threw up was when Sam’s reply to “Things that give you goosebumps” was “thinking about goosebumps”. This is about as close to breaking the fourth wall that real life can get but then Sam explained that when he started to think about what might give him goosebumps, that itself gave him goosebumps. Perfectly valid, I suppose.

Things that give you goosbumps - the lower reaches of the scale

After that, I had enough in me for one last game. We split into two groups. I played Katy and Adam at Biblios, and it went pretty much as you might expect. Halfway through I got that sinking feeling that I wasn’t very strong in anything, but it was far too late to do anything about it. And I was right. Amazingly, though, no one finished the game with any orange cards at all, meaning that die was discarded, unscored.

Katy 5 (plus brown die)

Adam 5

Andrew 0

The other end of the table played Soda Jerk which I'm afraid I was completely oblivious to.

Whiskey and soda jerk, anyone?

With that, I was done. Many thanks to everyone for another exciting year. I’ll hand back to Sam for the final part of the blogging.

*

After Andrew left we were down to a quartet - or at least I thought we were. We set up for Misfits and and then saw Pete was quietly watching us, as though not wanting to interrupt. He'd decided to get a later train home and so we redistributed the pieces and set about it. I criticised Katy for going gong-ho saboteur on her very first turn, but the structure survived, long enough to grow big enough that when it collapsed on Pete and later Laura, they were handed enough wooden pieces to start a small fire. 

Chris then drove Pete off to the station and we were left as a trio. And what better way to end the evening than three cracks at So Clover. We kicked off with a 13/18, did about the same in the second game and then finished off with a triumphant 18 in the finale, by which point Katy was sure we had played four times but Laura and I demurred. 

Now a whisky or two to the good, there was even some post-game chat comparing dysfunctional families and putting the world to theoretical rights. Midnight was not tremendously far away by this point, and after a full shift of gaming, it was time to say goodnight. Thanks all for coming, it was epic!

Forged in Europe

Tuesday's GNN was a lightly-attended affair, possibly with the forthcoming Novocon affecting people's plans. Adam T arrived at my house early enough to watch me making a mess in the kitchen as I burnt some chicken for the family. Then, after tea was consumed, others arrived: Laura then Martin joined Adam in the front room until the decks were clear enough to game on them. We began with Adam's new library addition, Furnace. 

Martin prepares scathing BGG commentary

We are industrialists bidding for factories (cards) which, once that's resolved, we run the factories which either give us resources of coal/metal/oil and/or convert said resources (- oil, mostly) into cash, which is points. The bidding system is canny: everyone has bidding chips numbered 1-4 and you can't bid on any factory with the same colour chip (ie, you've already bid on it) or the same number. 

When the bidding is done, the highest bidder gets the factory but any outbid chips pick up compensation in the form of the precious resources: meaning you often want to be outbid in one factory in order to run another. 

Then everyone runs their factories and turns base metal into gold. In round one (of four) this is pretty straightforward, but as the cards multiply the cognitive load escalates, leading to brow-furrowing, dark muttering and do-overs. Here's Adam's factories on the final round:

Holy industrialisation

It's not a terribly long game at all, but whether the factory fun lived up to the bidding brevity; the jury was out on that (except for Martin, who was like a reverse Henry Fonda trying to get the accused in for a life stretch). Despite his chagrin, however, he still did well enough. With the fewest factories, I was the only one completely certain of my score. A shame it wasn't a good one.

Martin 78 'give or take five'

Adam 68 'couldn't do the last step'

Sam 54

Laura 43 'but I'm not really sure'

After a brief post-mortem we moved on to a palette-cleanser in Gang of Dice; new to Laura but not exactly tricky to pick up. 

A happier Martin

The game was chiefly noted for Martin's speedy odds calculations and exhortations that everyone else risk everything to beat him. I won only two rounds in the entire game, I think Laura three or four. Adam may not have won as many as Martin, but he chose his moments well, ending with a vast stack of chips.

A happier Adam

Adam 64

Martin 45

Laura 33

Sam 20

Then Laura left to recharge her batteries for the weekend. We didn't need much debate to settle on Babylonia as our next conquest, with Adam and I agreeing before a tile had been placed that we needed to 'stop Martin'. It was a game of some quick ziggurat action as both my opponents claimed bonus tiles early on - Martin would have had a third had I not stopped him with my pesky farmers.

caption here, ideally

We created an odd division of thirds across the board with Adam and Martin largely playing in front of themselves and me occupying the middle space. Despite my ziggurat chicanery, Martin established an early lead and built on it as Adam ruminated into his beard and I into the room, only slightly louder. 

Although his point scoring dwindled somewhat and we hauled him back, our resident Babylonian had done enough to claim yet another win in this devious game. 

Martin 145

Sam 133

Adam 106

We moved onto Sea Salt & Paper. 

revenge

I eschewed my habit of calling stop in favour of some last-chances, helped by a couple of strong scores early in the rounds. We all did some dastardly sharking and after 20 minutes Martin was poised on 27 points with me on 21 and Adam 16. I pulled off a dramatic - and slightly spawny - win with a 15 point haul to propel me over the line.

scores

And that was that! See some of you at the weekend - NOVOCON IS HERE!!!

Mel Fiori

A bumper pack of gamers on Tuesday kicked off with Adam T and I facing off across the two 'islands' of BORD, the abstract viking punch-up game.

This plays over two seasons (summer and winter) but we ran out of time at the end of summer with Adam in a points lead. Martin, Ian and Gareth now here, we kicked off proper with Hot Lead, another Knizia of devilish properties. It reminded me of 6Nimmt in the all-choose, all-reveal pattern, and how hazarding others choices define your own, in part at least. 

It was a baptism of fire for Gareth and I, as we were both stung with negative points hauls:

Martin 67

Adam 61

Ian 53

Gareth and Sam 35 each

Still a quintet, we busted out my recently-returned copy of Cross Clues and scored a moderately bad 19/25, enough - or not enough - to make us attempt it again. I was stuck on Mars/King for ages until the word came to me unbidden: Apollo! And immediately Martin and Adam agreed it was Mars/King. Then they talked themselves out of it with two qualities my own brain lacks - knowledge, and logic. Still, we got 22/25 and were emboldened to go one more time (I forgot to take photos) this time with the presence of Mel assisting. It was a nearly-triumphant 24/25, and I wish I could remember any of the words/clues/funny moments but unfortunately it's been too long now, sorry. 

My notes say that Laura now arrived however, with Joe hot on her heels, and - although she didn't join the table - Sally returned as well, adding to the sense of a full house. We split into two groups, with Martin introducing Joe Laura and Gareth to Harvest, the multi-player Connect 4 with tornadoes. At the other end of the table, Adam thrashed the three of us at Photograph, and Ian and I fell foul of multiple over-exposures.

Adam T 28

Mel 15

Ian 12

Sam 6

Although it was pretty speedy, it wasn't as quick as Harvest. Martin beat the others 110-70 (each) in the first game, and they dealt a newly-arrived Katy in for the second. Laura cleaned up in this one:

Laura 160

Joe 90

Katy 70

Martin 60

Gareth 40 

With everyone now present who was going to be, we split into three - three! - groups across the table. Katy was keen to have a history-making (we suspect) GNN women-only game, and corralled Laura and Mel into Mille Fiori. Martin, Joe and Gareth set up KuZOOka leaving the remaining three of us just enough table space for Babylonia. Good times!

With two Knizias and a non-quarterbacking minimal-comms co-op on the table, Martin rhapsodized at length, almost as though his long-term scheme had finally come to fruition and he could move on to the next group enjoying some heads-down individual player boards somewhere in the south-west. But hopefully he'll stay - they triumphed at Kuzooka on the final round just as we finished not only a tense and tight Babylonia (Adam 155, Sam 152, Ian 151) but a dastardly chaser in Harvest, which Adam won again. Who invited this guy?

We packed away our games whilst also attending to the drama playing out on Mille Fiori, where debutant Mel was having the debut from heaven, a fact which Laura and Katy both tried to take credit for by being good teachers. Possibly true, but either way it was a spectacular score!

Mel 323

Katy 257

Laura 236

Incredible stuff.

However, that was the headliners done with and we lost some players to fatigue, with Joe, Adam and Mel retiring and leaving the rest of us to crack out a couple of attempts at So Clover. Our first attempt was very impressive, too, as we scored 34/36. Sadly I took no photos of our clovers and time hasn't been kind to my memory for the last decade or two, and especially since Tuesday. But it was a triumphant finale.

Or was it? As Laura and Ian headed for their respective beds, a brightly awake Katy cajoled us into the second game and this time we were rather less triumphant, scoring just 16/24 and prompting an unusually mournful tone from Martin about staying after the bell has rung. 

*

Somewhere in the midst of all this I think we played Strike twice as well. I won one of them, and Martin the other. I think? 

 

Bab alone

Some additional Thursday night gaming this week, as Ian and I (Sam) kicked things off with Zombie Kidz as we waited for Chris and Gareth to show up, the co-op game of rushing around locking gates before the undead overcome you. Whether it was fate, luck, our brilliance, or a bit of all three, we wrapped things up in ten minutes with an easy win. Chris arrived a quarter-way through it but didn't have long to wait.

After briefly catching up we set up Babylonia, knowing Gareth had played before. Because he was running late though we decided to begin, with me taking his opening move. I thought my second turn on Gareth's behalf was pretty good, but as he showed up then we reset to allow him autonomy, and he did something very different. 

It was an unusual game in that we didn't interfere with each other much at all in the early running, perhaps all hoping that the others would do so on our behalf. Instead everyone carved out a section of the board to themselves in a strange isolationist approach. 

Chris (white) and Ian (brown) did so the most effectively. Chris' final score of 153 beat Ian by a point! Gareth was back on 128 and my score wasn't worth speaking aloud. A dreadful effort on my part, especially considering I felt reasonably confident for the first half of the game. But excellent chaining from the others. 

I would extract some measure of revenge in our next Knizia: The Quest for El Dorado. I forgot to take photos at this point but my only strategy was gutting my deck of starting cards. Having a tiny set of cards (7), one of which allowed me to draw two more almost every time, meant I stormed off into a convincing win, although it should be noted that both Gareth and Ian were blocked in on two or three turns when they wanted to move - it could have been very different had this not happened...

Gareth had to head home so the three of us finished off with Thunder Road. 

The deliberately dumb racing game was as fun as previous visits, as we slammed into each other, shot each other off the track, and in one instance blew up our own car. Three cars each start on the finish line and the two ways to win are either last one standing (bully win) or first to the finish line (skill win) - but the finish line only appears the moment the first player is eliminated. Otherwise the modular tracks keep cycling down a never-ending road, presumably downhill considering the lack of petrol stations. 

I lost a car on the first turn when Chris shot me and I skidded off the track. Then Chris was victim to his own helicopter, then we realised Ian still had all three cars and began shooting at him and missing. 

If Ian eliminated Chris' last car, I was well-placed to reach the finish-line first. So he went for me and missed. I shot at Chris and missed. Chris shot at Ian and blasted his last car out of existence (I think - it was pretty hurly-burly at this stage). Then he eliminated me as well and didn't even need to reach the finish line as he blew the smoke from his muzzle. Bully win!

And that was that. Thanks chaps!

Chippencon!

Friday

With Paul J the quiet instigator of the idea, the old London branch of GNN coalesced this weekend at Chris's house in Chippenham: as well as the host, Paul J and myself there was Paul H for the duration, Stuart on Friday night and then Andrew on Saturday. 

But all this was ahead of us as I arrived at midday on Friday and after catching up with Jacquie and the kids, Chris and I shot off to collect Paul J from the station. Then after a second-wave newsbeat, we started gaming! We kicked things off with Babylonia, new to both Paul and Chris but a relatively easy teach. 

We played slightly too open, having the full board instead of the slightly condensed one for three, but that made it an easier learning game:

Sam 149

Chris 147

Paul 99

And now familiar with it, both were enthusiastic for another crack.

My long and arduous master-and-apprentice defeats at the hands of Martin stood me in good stead once more:

Sam 123

Paul 99

Chris 96

Lovely to find two more converts! We moved on to Sushi Go, the game of card-drafting Japanese foodstuffs. Owing to a misunderstanding over chopsticks, I ruled myself out of contention after round one, but it's not exactly a grind.

Paul 72

Chris 59

Sam 46

 Paul began a four-game winning run here, following his Sushi Go triumph with victories in Alhambra:

Kingdomino...

And Kingdom Builder.

Chris was appalled to finish third in every instance, voicing aloud his regret at the very idea of Chippencon. Things didn't improve immediately for him when Paul H arrived, as we kicked off with Tournament Raj and despite a huge last-round haul, he still finished last. Paul J and I slugged it out for first place, but he shrugged me off to claim a fifth victory in a row!

Paul J 60

Sam 51

Paul 45

Chris 33

With tea consumed - thank you Chris and Jacquie - and Stuart freshly arrived, we fancied something a bit feistier now, and so I talked them through the rules of Hansa Teutonica. 

Despite my encouragements to get sabotaging. everyone was very polite at the start and the first couple of rounds were slightly after-you-sir. But soon enough we were getting in each other's way and the cussing ramped up slightly. The initial sense of being hobbled by two actions fell away as we proliferated across the board and engines kicked into gear. 

After an hour of cross-postal interference, Stuart leapt from an innocuous fourth place into joint first with Chris, and I couldn't quite catch them. We checked the rules for a tie-breaker and Chris' fewer actions-per-turn won him the game!

Chris 38 wins tiebreaker 

Stuart 38

Sam 37

Paul H 29

Paul J 25

Now into the meat of the evening, we debated our five-player options. Paul J was understandably reluctant to learn another set of rules at this point, so we alighted on Istanbul, needing a mostly-fringe-area refreshment on rules. I forgot to take any photos at this point, but suffice to say Paul H was now warmed-up and moved through the gears to wrap up a relatively straightforward win, grabbing his fifth gem with the rest of us at least two turns away from doing likewise:

Paul H five gems!!!!

Sam  4 gems 31 cash 

Paul J 4 gems 6 cash

Stuart 4 gems 1 cash 

Chris 3 gems 13 cash 

The hour was getting late so with the request for something 'silly' I suggested Block Party.

Although this meant another set of rules, the fact they only take about 45 seconds to explain meant we were off and running quickly. And Chris made a banana. 

"I tried to bend it" he cried, but it mattered not: Stuart identified it. I guessed Paul H's spider and he saw the fire engine in my creation. We all ran the highs and lows of emotions - my milk bottle was alleged to be a snowman, a mountain, and an igloo - but ultimately the last game of the night saw Chris triumph:

Chris 11

Sam 10

Paul and Paul 8

Stuart 7

Saturday

I surfaced at around 8.15 to an extremely muggy day. We threw opens doors and windows to try and get some air into the house. Chester enjoyed having all these access points to the house. 

As well as the visiting articles to investigate. 

After breakfast, Jacquie liked the idea of trying out Block Party, so we did. Despite some creative performance anxiety, her debut creation was this beautiful pineapple:

However despite a frankly shambolic attempt at a door (in dubious colour choices of grey and pink) Chris triumphed again. I lost track of where Jacquie, Paul J and I finished.

Apart from that intense Block Party workout it was a fairly lazy morning. Paul H returned at 11am and while Chris prepped the chilli for later, he talked Paul J and I through the workings of Imhotep.

I think I played this about eight years ago, and I found it's piece-of-string machinations just as opaque this time, as players choose whether to add cubes to boats, or sail a full-enough boat to one of several possible destinations. It's fun, but I am really awful at judging anything being a good decision, and my focus on building a massive Burial Chamber didn't match up to the canny shenanigans of the Pauls, with Paul J claiming a debut victory!

Paul J 49

Paul H 41

Sam 39

Then with Chris back at the table, we returned to Babylonia. 

This was a corker, as leads between the Pauls and Chris ebbed and flowed whilst I languished back on a measly five points, hoping to draw enough farmers to use my ziggurat power. They didn't arrive and I had to focus my efforts building a central network that Chris spotted was going to haul me in some juicy points when they started paying out. I agreed, but I didn't think I'd close the now huge gap between Paul J (at this point) on something like 110 while I was back in the 30's somewhere. But as it turned out, it was damn close!

Chris 138

Sam 136

Paul J 130

Paul H 107

A baptism of fire for Paul H, then, but the next game - after our classic Lunch of Beige - was one he knew intimately: Eclipse! 

This was Chris's second-edition version, with some minor rules modifications (and one less round) and some faction asymmetry, but largely the same narrative: early rounds are developing tech and kitting out ships, building towards a massive bunfight at the end. Except here the bunfight never really materialised: Paul H and I established an alliance, and Chris and Paul J did the same.  Chris considered attacking Paul H, but decided against it because it looked like a death wish.

My dreams of peaceful expansion were undone by poor planning and ill fortune and I spent a few rounds only doing two actions and then passing early. The others expanded more successfully and built monstrously-violent death machines of the cosmos in a sort of cardboard cold war.

Then at the death Chris attacked the central hex and quickly reenforced his dominance there. He tried to take some hexes off me but didn't roll what he needed and we all eyed him warily. Oddly, his aggression went unrewarded in the sense of point-scoring, with Paul H's 'In Bed With the Ancients' faction grabbing victory:

Paul H 33

Paul J and Sam 32 each

Chris 30

Though it was certainly not a damp squib, I didn't enjoy Eclipse as much as I used to. It's a long haul to get to the more-exciting finale (caveat: my adjacency to that was more my fault than the games') and at times it feels a bit like a slightly protracted drum-roll. There's a lot to consider as well, and if it's a more elegant construction than Xia's everything-by-dice, it doesn't feel as stupidly fun. 

Speaking of dice, though, next up - after the very delicious chilli, and a quick sortie to the shops - was Las Vegas. It's not a game that supplies quite the epic narrative Eclipse does, but it was a nice pallet-cleanser:

Sam $510k

Paul J $470

Chris $380

Paul H $280

We knew Andrew was imminent, but just had enough time for another four-hander in the little-seen (by me at least) Timeline! I couldn't help but notice a seam of dark comedy in the images, with a number of characters looking vaguely psychotic.

Paul H won this. I discovered the refrigerator was invented much earlier than I'd anticipated, but now with crushing inevitability the exact year escapes me.

Paul H wins

Sam and Paul J 1 card

Chris 2 cards 

Andrew arrived just as we finished and after the briefest of catch-ups the discussion of what to play as a five began. Dominant Species? A bit long. Twilight Imperium? Very long. Istanbul? A bit short. We settled on Lords of Waterdeep. With no Martin or Ian present I elected to play green, so the colour/game combo made it feel a bit like 2010, as Prince used to sing.

Early on it was fairly even - I shot off on the scoretrack to 32 but had a bunch of skulls that made my actual score a current 14. Paul H pulled ahead and played some dastardly intrigue that balanced out revealing his Lord with the fact we couldn't target him all game. That was a bummer. Meanwhile I pulled ahead again, and Chris targeted me with one of those bastard mandatory quests that I'm definitely not still sore about. Andrew mostly chuckled at the names of the quests.

Incredible scenes at the end as Paul H pulled so far ahead it was almost embarrassing. My late game recovery wasn't enough to catch a resurgent Chris, and a briefly-dominant Paul J found Andrew had enough to sneak past him in the final count.

Paul H 166

Chris 148

Sam 144

Andrew 134

Paul J 131

After twelve hours of gaming I suddenly got hit by an ocular migraine, and had to play my final game (Incan Gold) with my eyes largely closed and Chris communicating events to me ("Zombie Lady!"). Paul J and Chris lacked our frugal conservatism and, falling behind, risked life and limb - and ultimately lost life and limbs - in wild attempts to recover.

In the end, however, it was Paul H who took yet another win!

PH 34

Andrew 32

Sam 26

Chris 20

PJ 0

And at this point, with my vision no better, I had to take myself to a dark room. It was a bit of a underwhelming way to end Chippencon and I was gutted to miss Chris and Andrew take on the Pauls in Decrypto! The Pauls won, though what the words and dramas were maybe we'll learn in the comments.

Thanks to Chris Jacquie and kids for putting up with us all, and everyone attending for making it fun.