Oregon and on and on

 After a long queue at a late night pharmacy and google maps vague awareness of Easton’s backroads, I arrived at Steve and Anja’s house at almost half past eight. Around the table were Adam H, Louie, Anja, Martin (one team) and Katy, Ian, Sam (the other team, which at this point, now included me).

The game, Rankster, was already halfway through when I joined in and everyone was trying to guess who Ian thought would give the best wedding speech out of John Lennon, LeBron James, Julius Caesar. Ian chose Lennon, by the way. Caesar would be too dramatic and LeBron would contain too many bouncing balls. 

Steve arrived and he was put on the same team as Anja. Her selection of famous people included Hamlet and Steve immediately put this particular Prince of Denmark in last position because he knew that Anja hated Hamlet. To prove it, he told us about a time he took her to see Hamlet – a highly regarded production directed by Jonathan Miller – and afterwards her verdict was “If I’d wanted to see a man dithering about for three and a half hours, I’d have stayed at home.” A brutal judgement on both Shakespeare and Steve. (Plus, Steve was wrong. Anja put Hamlet second.)

Adam, Louie, Anja, Martin 7

Andrew, Katy, Ian, Sam 6

Then we split into three groups. Louie was allowed to stay up long enough to join Ian and Sam in Robot Quest Arena. They were at the far end of the room, and I know nothing about the game except that it is now Louie’s favourite.

Louie 28

Ian 21

Sam 17

Martin, Steve and Anja played London Bridge. At least, they tried to but a determinedly not-sleepy Lennon kept creeping in. Eventually, Anja had to abandon London Bridge so she could get him back to sleep, so Martin and Steve played it as a two-hander. This, apparently, made it quite speedy. And that’s all I know about this game too.

Martin 56

Steve 46

The reason for my general ignorance about the state of the other games was because Adam, Katy and I were playing Oregon. It was my suggestion, even though I had only the vaguest memory of the rules. “It’s like noughts and crosses,” I assured a skeptical Katy.

Long story short: it’s nothing like noughts and crosses, but frequent references to the rules by me and Adam guided us through the early stages. 

Despite the interruptions from Lennon using us as a shield to hide from his parents, and from me trying to find my phone (during this search Katy found Anja’s credit card), the game was fun. Coal mining was inevitably accompanied by a burst of “Workin’ in a Coal Mine” by Lee Dorsey. I don’t really remember but Adam must have sung it most often. Katy also did her fair share of mining, generously removing all of the 1 tiles from the pile!

Adam 80

Katy 67

Andrew 59

While we populated Oregon, Robot Quest Arena ended and Louie went to bed. Sam, Ian and Anja played Misfits and Sam won. 

Then they played Bag Of Chips. I think it’s mostly to do with condiments and fried food, but my notes tell me that, halfway through, Anja said “Do you see my point about Hamlet?” Don't know why.

Alas, I didn’t see how it ended. After an evening of sitting on a sofa that kept threatening to make me fall asleep, I gave up on the evening and set off home and so did poorly Adam. But that wasn’t the end for the rest of them. Goodness me, no. Thanks to Sam for the timely updates.

After Ian won Bag of Chips and then they played Just One. Sam discovered that his name upside-down is “Wes”

And he also sent a photo of the remaining clues from one round so I was able to guess.

I got it right (and so did Ian) but they didn’t do too well overall, with a score of “average.”

Thanks to Anja and Steve for hosting. Hope to see you all next week!

Alberto in the library with amnesia

After the fiesta of the xmas blowout, the first GNN of the new year was a sparsely attended evening, with just Katy and Martin stepping in out of the perpetual rain to see what the night would bring. 

It started with revisiting Big Top, the circus-themed bidding game. 

In our debut play the other night, I'd won courtesy of nabbing early auctions before the prices rose. This time I was given no such licence as bids went up earlier. But it was also a game of over-expenditure, as we all found ourselves cash-poor at times, something Katy was concerned by as she had a card that gave her a great exchange rate for coins. Martin twice bought his own cards, and fretted about that. It was a game of ruminations.

Sam 61
Katy 49
Martin 41

Next up was Accuse!, where we are trying, Cluedo-like, to ascertain the location, weapon and personnel of a murder. There are two locations (three cards of each) three weapons (two cards of each) and six suspects (one card of each). A little information is shared but most is hidden; some in your hand. Turns pass with someone playing a card to the table face-down and announcing what it is. Airport, gun, person, etc. But the catch is you can lie and you can be challenged, which prompts a switching of cards from player to player or a card on the table being revealed. 

When you're ready, you can grab a pawn and make your guesses, revealing the crime cards only to yourself. If you're correct, you win! If not, the other players make bids as to how many cards they'll flip over before they make a correct guess, with the lowest bidder going first. 

Katy and Martin won a game apiece here, the second after we'd collectively suggested there were eight airport cards (there are three) and challenged just two of them. I might have won the second but I accused Bo, who I'd forgotten was in my hand just minutes earlier. 

Katy and Martin: Detectives!

Sam: Demoted

Next up was Misfits, the game of collaborative tower-building where you're actually trying to make the other players cause the tower to fall. 

For a game of even simpler rules than Bandu, it's surprisingly brutal, and together we concocted the kind of constructions that architects would shake their heads at. Or possibly admire, I'm not sure. Either way, I won both games, although apparently the first one didn't count, for obscure reasons. 

Next up was Romi Rami, or Rome Rams as my computer likes to call it. 

Katy got off to a strong start and was definitely points leader as Martin and I bemoaned our fates of heart contracts with only diamonds and clovers available on the table. But we came back into contention, and I even snuck ahead of Katy by the slenderest of margins, surviving Martin's abrupt ending of the game.

Sam 34

Katy33

Martin 28

I think at this point we had the first round of Katy's hot cross buns with Katy's homemade jam. Thanks Katy! Delicious. But more importantly there were games to be played. I was introduced to Bag of Chips, which I'd seen at Novocon but not actually played. It's a dumb but fun betting game that min-maxers would no doubt despise, as you discard/play cards as bets on what chips will come out of a bag. Naturally, I liked it! I won after two rounds and when Katy insisted we play a third, I won that too. MORE CHIPS PLEASE. 

We then played So Clover - I got no pics - and scored 13 out of 18 when Katy and I struggled with Martin's clover.We finished up and had another round of hot cross buns and jam to keep us going. We played So Clover again. This time one of Katy's clues was the letter 'O' which bamboozled us. We initially put it with limbo and Katy hissed 'look at all the words' which frankly is breaking the laws of So Clover, Martin what have you started here, before we tried putting it with boot and full (bootofull!) before finally spotting Cup and Soap (cup o soap) which was correct! 

So we did marginally better, 14 out of 18 and although I'm sure we'd all have loved to play again, it was time to wrap things up. 

Outside the rain continued to fall, so it was hoods up and off into the dark night. Until next Tuesday... happy new year all.