It's the trick that kills you

Steve and Anja were our hosts last night, with Louie sadly unwell enough to join but Lennon pitching in to open proceedings with a nine-player crack at Flip 7. Weirdly, this was suggested by Martin, even though he has regularly disdained the game. As is our established preference we took out the Freeze cards, although in hindsight they might have helped Ian and Lennon, who both imploded with incredible regularity. In fact I'm not sure Ian ever got past three cards. Adam did though. He almost needed an occasional table for his cards at one stage. 

Adam 202

Anja 152

Sam 146

Steve and Martin 89 each

Katy 66

Joe 54

Ian and Lennon - DNS

We split into two groups. Joe joining the Dalton-Dales for a gambol around the pyramid in Camel Up...

...whilst Martin explained the rules of Skull Queen to Adam and Katy (Ian and I had played before).

Both games took quite a while, even though we only played four rounds of Skull Queen as opposed to the one-round-per-player. The game is somewhat like contract whist in that you're predicting trick wins, but you're predicting for each suit rather than overall, and incorrect predictions can end up giving you zero points if your prediction pirates plunge off the plank. 

Martin dicked Katy over on her very first trick, rationalising that it was 'the best way to learn'. Katy frowned. To my left Joe was enjoying the racing/betting experience of camels who are capable of flea-like springing onto each other's backs, apparently having never played before. We were sure it did the rounds on GNN about ten years ago, but maybe Joe was playing Brass or Agricola. 

There was no Explainer's Curse for Steve as he ungulated his way to a convincing victory:

Steve 46

Anja 29

Joe 26

Lennon 22

And we wrapped up around the same time:

Sam 96

Adam 81

Martin 76

Katy 75

Ian 69

The double-movement cards (5 pushes the loser down twice, 8 up twice) played a significant role in prompting pirates into the pointless sea. Now there was some chat and bedtime duties so the remainder of us played The Gang. 

We made a poor start, although it was a close-run thing with first Jacks and 10s and then sixes and eights (I think?) the wrong way around. Down 0-2 to the incoming cops things looked bleak. But we rallied, aided by a Muscle card, and pulled off a slightly curious win: in the final round all but Joe had their strongest hand in the table cards. This drama didn't quite captivate Steve though, who chose reading his book over being dealt in for the finale. Steve! It's games night!

Everyone bar Lennon was back at the table now and we split into two fours, with Joe leading Anja, Martin and Adam in a game of TRND, which unfortunately I know nothing about, and the rest of us playing a hugely dickish session of Misfits. 

In game one, Ian defied gravity, physics, expectations and the fabric of reality as he pulled off three or four insane moves, earning him the title Prince of Darkness. Both he and Steve started new towers with horrible foundation blocks that we managed to build upon regardless. 

Ian took the win, but as TRND was ongoing we began again. There were rules arguments as Katy attempted to executive-decision Ian's opening gambit - upside-down cloud - back to him. There was a group decision that the cloud rolling didn't equate it falling. Then it fell anyway. 

There was a lot of shenanigans and complaints that the TRND players kept 'using the table' but Steve overcame all obstacles to claim the win: this 'despite Katy' my notes say. TRND finished with Martin the victor; not sure the word 'convincing' does the margin justice:

Martin 85

Adam 36

Anja 9

Joe 4

Joe's final hand was one card away from a huge points haul: close, but no red chair. We did briefly flirt with the idea of one last game, but that crushing disappointment for the Berge turned out to be the night's last act. We trundled out into the night, sated. See you in a couple of weeks!

It’s okay once you get your finger in

Saturday! Games! Ian, Martin and I arrived at chez Sam’s at six o’clock (actually Martin arrived one hour earlier having not received the news of a slight postponement. That did, however, mean he got supper) for some gaming. This first event of the evening involved Sam’s two boys, Stanley and Joe. It was Camel Up! Sam and Joe formed a team against myself, Ian, Martin and Stanley.

The game of crazy betting and judging probabilities went pretty smoothly once we'd taught Stanley how to use the dice pyramid. Ian won big early on and then kept winning big. Sam/Joe won 16 points on their bets, with both the winning and losing camels being exactly as they predicted. Kudos.

Ian 28
Sam/Joe 28
Stanley 15
Martin 9
Andrew 8

Next Sam put his boys to bed, so we had to fill in with a medium-sized game. Martin suggested Impulse and I and Ian agreed. Ian hadn’t played in a while, but with his zen approach to gaming of knowing, yet not knowing (what you should do next) that he perfected while playing Concordia, he happily agreed to give it another go against two seasoned pros.

It turned out to be a very odd game. After a few rounds of tentative exploration and the occasional skirmish, Martin went for the jugular, attacking Ian . If he had won, he would’ve been on course to take me out, too. As it was, Ian won! The key to battling in Impulse is that your hand needs to contain cards that match colour and value of one of the cards showing on the “impulse” (the action cards shared by everyone) and your tech cards and plan cards. Martin played a card to the impulse (a red three) which allowed Ian to defend himself successfully (with two more red threes). If Martin had played a different card, he would've won. Oh, the irony! And, oh the relief for me.

Towards the end of the game, war had taken its toll, and there were hardly any ships left on the map as the game neared its closing stages. Martin almost wiped out Ian, and then I swooped in to take out some of Martin's ships, before Ian took his revenge too. Finally, with only one ship left, Martin attacked me. All of this war left us with a very empty map.

I suffered throughout the game with a lack of cards, and couldn’t get going. Despite this, I was able to trade a number of red cards for points, so it remained close until the end, when Martin scored two points (by fighting, of course) to reach twenty points and won the game.

Martin 20
Ian 14
Andrew 13

Now Sam was back, and it was time for a new game to hit the table. In The Shadow Of The Emperor is a game in which we are vying for area control with our steadily aging barons. Winning an area gets you a vote in the election for emperor. The twist is that the emperor will get certain benefits for the next round, so you have to bear that in mind when deciding who the next emperor is. That part is pretty clever, and it's a neat catch-up mechanism. The rest of the game, though, is as dry as old bones.

We tried to power through it, but this is a game that demands long periods of concentration. We promised ourselves a rousing game of Cube Quest once we were done, and that kept our spirits up. I didn't really understand what was going on, Sam had so much cash that he couldn't spend it all, Ian was emperor twice in a row, and Martin... well, I'm not sure how he won, but he did.

Martin 26
Ian 23
Sam 22
Andrew 17

And so we ended with Cube Quest! Hurrah! The Emperor has been overthrown by two feuding kings and their unpredictable armies! With toast from Sam!

We played in rotating teams of two a side. I was Mr Cool-under-pressure (at least, I don't remember any wild flicks). Martin was a crazy maverick, building a tower in one game to get at the opponent's king straight away (and it very nearly worked) but mostly just pinging his cubes off the table, leaving his enemies largely unruffled. Ian, though, was the killer, finishing two of the games with cold precision. We were remarking on how well he was playing, which is when he explained that “It's okay once you get your finger in.” Which is where this blog post's slightly distasteful title came from.

Ian 2 wins
Sam 2 wins
Andrew 2 wins
Martin 0 wins

And with that, we were off into the night air, all gamed out.

One onesie, two humps

Monday. Shortly after sending out the invite for non-Tuesday gaming, I (Sam) conked out on the sofa in a fitful sleep. In my semi-lucid daze I did wonder whether drinking and playing was the best idea. Then I realised it was.

Come 7.45 Ian strode in to find me in my Everton onesie. I had elected not to get dressed again, thinking we were all friends. And sure enough Ian and - shortly after - Andrew shrugged off their surprise as we had more serious matters than my sartorial shortcomings at hand.

We started with A Castle For All Seasons. As I was setting it up Ian - possibly channelling Martin - said "this looked like one of those games where you get stuff to get other stuff" - and I had to admit it was. With the saving caveat that the main mechanic was card-play rather than worker placement. Even with Ian new to it, the game played fast - all the way through we kept saying how quickly the rounds were going. But we still managed to be surprised when the last round arrived. Andrew's end-game bonuses weren't quite enough to catch me; whilst Ian did respectably on a first play with a man in a romper suit:

Sam 53
Andrew 50
Ian 37

We moved on to Istanbul: the quick version. It wasn't as quick as all that, actually - all of us had our moments of staring at the board almost accusingly. Andrew was probably least guilty of this - but having played with admirable lassez faire, he was rewarded with a tanking. Mine and Ian's brow-furrowing was partly down to the fact we were playing a variant - each of us started with an extra neutral assistant. They could be dropped off at buildings and function normally - the only difference was anyone could pick them up. It was a game of surges - Ian burst into the lead but his method of accruing stuff to trade in at the Sultan's palace meant that he had moments of having nothing to do but collect more resources. I used one of these fallow moments - combined with a bonus card - to nab a sneaky win:

Sam 5 gems
Ian 4 gems
Andrew 2 gems

Next up was Camel Up. Andrew and Ian were keen and I was open to it, though having enjoyed the first few plays ever since I've found it a bit... faffy. I think for me it's just slightly too long and slightly too complicated for what it is. And I say that despite having pulled off the spawniest win ever - lagging in third, I catapulted myself to victory by virtue of being first to predict outright winner and outright loser. I'd love to say this was strategic genius, but I can't. I'm wearing a onesie.

We finished a rapid night of sparring with Love Letter. Ian proclaimed he liked this game because he "doesn't know" what he's doing; but whatever system he employs it serves him well. Andrew went into a 2-0-0 lead but Ian came back well enough to win. Although in the last round I was reluctant kingmaker - I knew I'd lost, but I was pretty sure that Andrew had the king. So I guessed correctly and knocked him out, by default handing the win to Ian! Sorry Andrew.

Ian 3 cubes
Andrew 2 cubes
Sam 1 cube

Four Tribes. Five Days.

Five days in Dorset with four families - Joe's, mine (Sam), our friends Tom and Hannah (plus Theo and Esme) and Alison and Simon (plus Elliott). It's something of a tradition now, as this was the third year running we piled into a rambling 1930's house and indulged ourselves in fine wine, fine food and of course, games.

It's only really myself and Joe who are committed gamers, but Tom, Simon and most of the children are at least intrigued, and often keen. It was amazing to watch how young children will pick up a game very quickly, whereas some of the adults will start to glaze over, defeated, as soon as there is a third or fourth rule.

I'd brought along a few games and Joe a few more. We both had a new purchase with us - Istanbul for me, and Machi Koro for Joe. Both were big hits.

Image courtesy JackyTheRipper

Machi Koro is a game of dice and cards. Thematically each player is building a city, and they grow from their initial two cards (Bakery and Wheat Field)) by generating money to build more buildings (or other things, such as the curiously un-urban Forest), which beget more money, which beget more buildings and so on. The first player to build four specific landmark buildings - Radio Tower, Train Staion, etc - wins. Personally I didn't get on with it. A series of rubbish dice rolls and consistent strategic ineptitude on my part in three attempts all ended with me soundly beaten and somewhat frustrated. But I was the sole voice of dissent, as Joe, Tom, Simon and the kids played it serially over the five days to much appreciation. I think Tom usually won.

Istanbul won the Kennerspiel des Jahres, the award for the "Gamers Game" this year, apparently seeing off Concordia in doing so. I don't know if it's the better game, but it's certainly more accessible. It's slightly reminiscent of Five Tribes in layout and movement, but any similarities end there, as the game moves much faster and finishes much quicker. Each player is trying to be the first to get a number of gems - 6 in a two-player game, 5 with more. Everyone has a merchant they move around the variable set-up board, dropping off assistants to do tasks in worker-placement style. You can try and generate money and buy gems, or pay for them with resources. Getting certain in-game bonuses or extras will also get you a gem. Key to the game is movement - you can only do the action of a building if you're dropping off or picking up an assistant, so you can't go scattergun all over the place.   I played this as a two, three, and four player and enjoyed them all - admittedly I won them all, but Tom never played it.

 Image courtesy Kenneth Hiew

Cube Quest was also a big hit, particularly with the kids. Big Joe and I spent a good deal of our time searching for cubes behind or under furniture as the flicking velocity increased. It's a great leveller, Cube Quest. I won a few games - but I also lost to both Little Joe and Stanley, and Stanley defeated Tom (Tom!) with possibly the Flick of the Trip - a two-mat sniper-style hit on Tom's King.

Little Joe prepares for battle

Possibly the biggest hit, though, was a variation on many party games which Alison introduced: one by one the adults chose a book and read out the title, and blurb on the back. Then everyone wrote their own opening line to the book in question, and they were all (including the real one) read out. Points are awarded for a correct guess and for anyone who guesses your own faked effort. I won this game narrowly but it helped me massively that, being only fairly drunk in a room full of paralytic people - courtesy of some extremely strong margaritas - I had my wits reasonably about me. I have never seen Joe as drunk as during this game. I'm not sure I've seen anyone as drunk as Joe during this game. He fell off his chair three times, went outside for a mysterious 'walk', and fell asleep upstairs during the last round whilst the children - still up to witness events - regarded us all with appalled, yet justified, disdain. The game definitely benefited from our inebriation though, as well as an impressive collection of 1950's literature on the house's bookshelves - titles including The Swish of the Curtain, The Houses Inbetween, Destination Unknown - and best of all Gently Sahib, the story of a tiger killing someone in a sleepy England town and poor old Detective Gently assigned to investigate. Our own investigation of the novel itself featured a fleeting appearance of Sausages and Mash, the game of reading out sections of a book and turning any words beginning with S or M into 'sausages' or 'mash' - or variations thereof. No-one - or maybe everyone - is a winner with this venture.

Our rival to Simonen

Other games were played - Dominion, Fauna, Camel Up and X-wing (basic version). The latter three were curiously flat: Charlotte admitted Fauna had never lived up to its first play when there was hysteria over the Bushy-Tailed Gerd. Though we played to the end nobody requested it again. I had a disaster, finishing stony last and embarrassing myself by thinking Balearic music came from Central America. Music and geography - not my specialisms. I tended to focus on the map and not guess at length and weight that much. Personally I really struggle with weight once you get beyond a pound - I've realised I measure weight in terms of cheese.

Dominion, and Elliott's leg.

But Fauna was probably the success of the non-successes; Camel Up was okay but it lacks the immediacy of something like Cube Quest, and actually is a tiny bit fiddly rules-wise for something that plays in 20 minutes. X-Wing I really need to learn the proper rules to, as the base game - played by Elliott and I - is fairly dull. I'll bring it along to GNN and let Matt teach me! Trans Europa also saw the table at one point early on, and the eerily prescient event of Tom winning happened. I think apart from Fauna and Cube Quest he may have won every game he played.

Take It Easy got played a couple of times, with Joe beating me in a two player, and I'm not sure who won the group game. Probably Tom. Wizard also made the table, although I only witnessed a small part of the game which was Theo going for every single trick in two subsequent rounds. Tom won.

Simon won Dominion (Tom didn't play) in a tie-breaker with Elliott, who had a bit of a crazy week overall. On the second night he fell out of a tree and broke his leg in two places. He spent a night in hospital and then returned with his limb in a cast and recommenced gaming, albeit more statically before. As someone who can generate a few days' worth of complaint about a split nail, I take my hat off to his calm stoicism throughout the whole episode. He also - pre-break - beat myself and Theo at Raj, when I picked up two minus cards thanks to the boys tying on lower bids. A late surge when the boys were left with low-numbered cards was not enough to catch up. Oh Raj! Why dost thou forsake me so?

There were also several games of Top Trumps, both Stan's several-years-out-of-date European Football Stars deck (Tom beat Stan) and Joe's Transformers version. I now know that Optimus Prime travelled to Earth after thousands of years in search of the Allspark, only to find his nemesis Megatron awaiting him. Poor Optimus.

Vegas, and the crossword

We didn't spend the whole time at the table. There was walking and beaches and Lyme Regis and football and cycling and even mushroom foraging, leading to the discovery of the Shaggy Ink Cap, which is non-poisonous unless eaten with alcohol, or even (apparently) combined with potent aftershave. Simon already knew this, as he recounted the fact that Georgians tried to cure alcoholism by feeding the afflicted with the shaggy ink cap, and thus supplying them with non-fatal yet lingering hangover symptoms.

We didn't need mushrooms for that.

Shaggy

On the last night we played (Las) Vegas (Tom won) early in the evening, and Joe's plan for Lords of Vegas as the main event were stymied by lengthy meals and lengthier chat, including Joe himself coming up with the tagline for the relaunched Soda Stream: Force Air Through It! He did still try and push Lords of Vegas through, but at 10.40pm, my shying away from it dissuaded others. Sorry Joe. Instead they played Long Shot, the game of betting on plastic horses. In fact that's what he, Tom and Simon are playing now as I write. All that remains to be seen is who finishes second behind Tom. I'm going to bed.

Fun With Dead Civilizations

Tonight Chris was in town, and so an APB was sent out from GNNHQ for any willing and able-bodied gamers to rendezvous at Sam’s. To play some games.

Chris, Sam, myself and Ian were tonight’s brave players. When I arrived Sam was showing Chris the basics of Five Tribes, and as I walked into the kitchen Sam looked embarrassed and declared “We’re not playing it” in exactly the tone of voice the people usually use for “Mother, I’ve never seen those magazines before in my life.”

That was put away and Ian arrived. Chris suggested we play his new copy of Timeline: the general interest edition. I usually do well with Timeline, but it’s usually about inventions. This edition had things like The Introduction of Clementines and The Domestication of Cattle. It also contained the curiously but vividly illustrated Invention of Hypnotism.

I had no chance with trivia like this. I’m used to historical events, not stuff like “First person to balance on the two back legs of a chair” or whatever. Chris fared better.

Chris 0
Sam 2
Ian 3
Andrew 3

No one seemed to be in the mood for anything long, so a pile of hour-long-ish games was produced, and from this Ra was chosen. I don’t have a great record at this, and Chris hadn’t played it in years. Surely, this would be a walk in the park for Sam. I went for monuments early and Sam’s first round collection of Niles looked like it would pay off, were it not for a conspicuous lack of floods in round three. Chris went for a little bit of everything and ended up with a large bit of nothing. Ian wrestled with several inner demons while choosing whether to bid or not, and in the end he seemed quite happy to not come last. My magnificent megopolis was not enough to overturn Sam’s lead.

Sam 39
Andrew 30
Ian 18
Chris 13

What next? Well, in the face of a ticking clock and terminal indecision, you can always rely on 7 Wonders to be the right decision. I got a very ordinary Wonder, which only got me money for my troubles. It was so bland, I’ve forgotten which one it was.

I played a fairly simple game, avoiding war and scoring a bit in each other category. Chris was scuppered as his initial plan of going ballistic with guns and bombs was undone by Sam and Ian having exactly the same idea.

Ian had good guilds and Sam scored almost everywhere.

Sam 55
Ian 50
Andrew 47
Chris 37

There is a 7 Wonders division, and I’ll be honest it’s a little embarrassing. Sam and I have played so often that we’re over forty points from each other and our nearest rivals. Is Sam’s score of 150+ points a sign of genius, or a signal for help? Gonz wins points ratio with another high score that will probably stay for a while.

Next up was Poison. Another Knizia, and another interesting game. Ian went for the unique tactic of trying to score most in all colours. And, surprisingly, he did it! Alas, there were four poison cards to drag him back in the first round. Otherwise, a sterling effort, and one that I didn’t think was possible!

But it’s a high risk strategy, and Ian’s eagerness to pick up cards was easy to exploit. Both Sam and Chris got through rounds picking up no points at all but it was yours truly, Mr Consistency, who took first place.

Andrew 15
Chris 16
Sam 18
Ian 26

Finally, there was room for one more light game, and Camel Cup had been mentioned throughout the evening. Clearly an irresistible treat, especially after all those savoury llama snacks that Chris had brought with him

Once down on the table it teased us with its probabilistic delights. Was it really possible for Orange Camel to piggy back on other camels from fourth to first? Well, anything is possible in this game. Just not very probable, that’s all. Why on earth did Ian bet on it, then?

Sam 37
Andrew 30
Ian 30
Chris 26

So... to the Form Table!

Not much has changed, not even after five games in an evening. Oh well.

						Points
Sam	1	3	1	1	2	8
Adam	2	2	1	1	3	9
Martin	1	2	2	4	2	11
Andrew	2	1	3	2	3	11
Katie	3	2	6	1	3	15
Ian	3	4	2	3	3	15
Chris	4	2	4	4	1	15
Joe	3	3	1	3	5	15
Matt	1	3	2	5	5	16
Stanley	4	1	5	5	5	20
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22

Games are like Amerigo-round.

GNN is like a lucky dip these days: you never know what you’re going to get. One minute Adam shows up unexpected, then Chris can make it over from Bracknell, and today Paul came all the way from London to visit Cardiff and join us in our regular Tuesday games night. And if that weren’t enough, Steve manged to make it over too. Adam was hosting and, with Hannah to tired to join in, we were seven in number: Me, Sam, Matt, Paul, Ian, Adam and Steve.

But before Steve arrived, we indulged in a little Camel Up. This betting game is simplicity itself, which is probably why it appeals so much to us. But this was the first time we’d played it with so many, and that did change the game slightly. Because there was such a long gaps between turns, it seemed like everyone was doing whatever they could except actually move the camels along. If they did this, then they next few players would be in a better position to bet with the new position of the camels. Steve arrived midway through and commented that, for a race, the camels didn’t move much.


Matt 24
Paul 15
Ian 14
Sam 13
Adam 10
Andrew 8

Then we split into two. Like last week, Adam, Matt and myself we sent to the front room while the other group played a game that needed more surface area. We chose Concordia, while Ian, Steve, Paul and Sam took on Amerigo, an epic game whose promises of random maps and a dice tower were enough to convince the newbies to set sail.

In the front room, I explained the rules of Concordia to Adam and we began. It was pretty slow going, and Adam found the cognitive load quite a burden. He said that every new card that was revealed made him want to change his strategy.

Matt’s reputation as the obscure mule was well deserved, as he quietly monopolised wine. I went for brick and cloth cities mostly. In the end, those rolls of blue silk were enough to push me into first.

Andrew 125
Matt 120
Adam 104

With Amerigo nowhere near ending, we went for a game of No Thanks. This was new to Matt, so we explained the rules and then explained them again midway through the game as he didn’t seem to have understood the rule about chaining cards together. He still did okay though.

Matt 43
Adam 67
Andrew 74

Still Amerigo had land untouched by human hand, so we squeezed in a second game. This time I eschewed my usual strategy of low cards and went for higher cards instead. I got a bit of luck with a run of five, and that was enough to give me what I think is my first ever win on No Thanks! (I’ve come joint first before, but this is my first solo victory.)

Andrew 30
Adam 31
Matt 49

And by now Amerigo was over, and multipliers had been totted up. As you might expect from someone with such a strong reputation with long thinky games, Steve came away the winner.

Steve 128
Sam 118
Paul 118
Ian 100

Amazing scenes on the leaderboard, as Joe rises to top spot, even though we haven’t seen him in about two weeks!

						Points
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	10
Matt	3	1	2	1	3	10
Sam	2	4	2	1	2	11
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Andrew	1	3	1	6	3	14
Adam	2	2	3	5	2	14
Ian	3	3	4	4	3	17
Paul	2	2	5	5	5	19
Steve	1	5	5	5	5	21
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22

Wine bottles and cola cubes

On Sunday with the house still empty - and having spent a day doing tax return stuff - I whimsically texted Chris in case he could make it to Bristol… and he could! We sent out invitations and Andrew - despite the epic games session of the day before - came up to join us, and help me out with the 5-litre bottle of wine I've been struggling through over the weekend.

Before he got there I familiarized Chris with Camel Up, so when Andrew came in we were ready to dive straight into leaderboard action with a flurry of ungulatory betting.

But despite mine and Chris' warm-up game it was Andrew who romped home with the most winnings:

Andrew 31

Sam 24

Chris 18

With that palette-cleanser out of the road, we browsed the cupboard. Chris fancied playing something new and reasonably weighty, so I proposed Concordia. It was to be an epic battle! Concordia's unusual scoring system reminded Chris of Stone Age, and after taking over Spain, generating enough cloth to put a curtain around it, and getting a whole bunch of followers on the board, he was worried that he hadn't picked up enough cards for the end-game bonuses.

I was of a similar mind, but Chris' strong showing on the board was enough to score him a big 96 points - exactly the same as me, in fact. Chris won on the tie-breaker rule of holding (or being next to receive, in this case) the Prefectus Magnus card. Andrew had never seemed to get going to me and I thought maybe he was worn out from the camels - but obviously he'd been effective enough to stay competitive:

Chris 96 (wins on tie-breaker)

Sam 96

Andrew 88

Next up we pulled out Take It Easy. This game burnt bright for a good few weeks at GNN before sloping off to the cupboard; but I still really enjoy it. We stuck with our meme of announcing the tiles with a theme. Andrew did things from the eighties, I did B-Movies, and Chris did sweets-you-had-when-you-were-young, meaning 5-7-8 was cola cubes. 

I decided not to obsess over nines and curiously, it paid off:

Sam 537

Chris 505

Andrew 340

Andrew at this point said he was going to head off and Chris and I decided to do one more game before he too, went home. We chose 7 Wonders, at which point Andrew shucked his coat off again and sat down at the table. 

Not for the first time I elected to go for sciences, only to abandon the plan very early on. Andrew did them instead, and scored big - but neither of us got close enough to the 7 Wonder king, who combined military might with a hefty collection of blue buildings:

Chris 58

Sam 54

Andrew 49

Great to get Chris on the leaderboard, even if he won too many games for our liking! 

						Points
Sam	2	1	2	2	1	7
Adam	2	1	1	2	4	10
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	10
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Chris	1	2	1	3	5	12
Andrew	3	3	3	1	3	13
Matt	3	3	3	1	4	14
Ian	4	4	3	3	2	16
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22

Nights of Camel-ot

Saturday games! Two words that don’t go together nearly enough. Sam’s injured foot meant he was unable to accompany his family on a brief camping trip. And so, with the house to himself, he and I met up during the afternoon for some gaming and writing shenanigans, with the evening open to all for some leaderboard activity!

We wrote a bit while the other set up a game. At first, I was typing away while Sam sorted out a game of Camel Up (at first we erroneously called it Camel Cup, a name that I’m quite fond of now I’m used to it) which is a quick and quirky betting game. Five camels run around a short circuit, propelled by dice that go from 1 to 3. But the catch is that if one camel lands on another, then it is carried on the second one if it moves too. Therefore, it is rare for a camel to be completely out of the running, and common for the possibilities for the eventual winner to be very complex.

Add to this plenty of mid-race betting, and other ways to get money, and you have a quick half hour gambling fix that reminded both Sam and me of Manila, but shorter and sillier and more tense.

Andrew 46
Sam 36

Then, with about three hours before Ian’s arrival at six, we decided to try one of the epic games that have been taking up precious space in Sam’s games cupboard. First, we went for Colonial, with it’s lovely design and promises of politics and diplomacy on the high seas. But, as we were setting up, we noticed the rules suggested that the first game shouldn’t be a two-player game, since that’s a variant of the “real” game.

Not to worry, we thought, and we switched our attention to Terra Mystica. However, after painstakingly separating out the pieces, lining up the scoring tiles, we discovered that first-timers needed to follow certain rules... which we couldn’t find in the rule book. With time pressing, we put it away too, and broke out another new game.

This one, Lewis & Clark (nothing to do with Superman - apparently they were two pioneers of the American West) was quicker to lay out and easier to understand. Sort of. Sam struggled with some of the maths, and with almost every card having a different power, the options available towards the end of the game meant there was some analysis paralysis.

The game is simple. You need to explore the wild west of North America (as shown by the progress of your scout along a river from Saint Louis to Fort Clatsop) and to do this, you need to activate certain cards by using other cards to support it and, if necessary, some native Americans too.

This allows you to collect resources, turn them into canoes/horses to help you progress, but be careful: if you end up with no cards left and having to “set up camp” (ie, take all your cards back into your hand) while you have lots of resources and Native Americans, then you can find yourself being sent backwards down the river.

It’s not very intuitive, with lots of obscure icons clogging up cards and tiles. I got the hang of it quicker than Sam but, ultimately, my winning move was actually an illegal move that we’d been getting wrong all through the game (the number of Native Americans able to use each space in the village: I thought it was unlimited, Sam thought it was two, it turned out to be one). It would’ve been wrong to suddenly play by the real rules, but it still felt like a hollow victory. But a victory nevertheless!

Andrew won!
Sam didn’t.

An interesting game. Interesting and worth a second look sometime.

By now, Ian had arrived, and we had supper (Sam’s chili – very nice it was too), completed the Guardian’s cryptic crossword (Sam had already done most of it) and set forth on a real game.

Sam and I were keen to get Camel Up (still called Camel Cup at this hour) back on the table. We explained the rules to Ian, and we were off!

Sam 28
Ian 24
Andrew 22

The first game whizzed by so fast that we couldn’t resist the lure of a second game. Like the cheesy nibbles I kept scooping into my mouth, it was impossible to just have one. So we set the game up again, and they were off!

Andrew 45
Sam 28
Ian 25

I played the odds and bet early on that the camel in last would finish last, and the camel in first would be first, and I turned out to be correct! That alone inflated my win to huge proportions.

After this, I suggested 7 Wonders, since Ian had just learnt the rules, I thought it better to get him back on the horse as soon as possible.

I had the Pyramids of Gizah, so I concentrated on building that, with some military and the occasional blue building here and there but little else. Sam had the Gardens of Babylon (which he said were shit) and went for sciences, a little warfare and a general spread of cards. I don’t remember what Ian had, but he went the pacifist route. Meanwhile his wonder’s power of copying guilds was annulled by neither me nor Sam building any guilds. Ah ha ha!

Sam 57
Andrew 56
Ian 36

As we were finishing off, the doorbell rang. Who could that be, we wondered? Perhaps a neighbour with some pressing domestic crisis? No! It was Adam! We welcomed our friend from Easton with smiling faces and open arms. And then, perhaps foolishly, we gave him the choice of game. He plumped for Railways of the World. This was brand new for Ian, but he’ll have to learn one day so why not today?

We guided him through the rules, but there’s no substitute for experience in this game. Adam rushed off into an early lead, with me in hot pursuit, with both of us picking up bonuses and bounties. Adam had the lucrative north-east seaboard mostly to himself but, for some reason, he wouldn't deliver the many yellow cubes in the vicinity to Baltimore where I had a hotel.

My operations focused around Charleston and Mobile, simply because that’s where the service bounties sent me. Sam went for the big link from Kansas to New York, which shot him into second place midway through the game – a gap I couldn’t close. Ian built around the Great Lakes and, as you’d expect for a first game, never really got going.

Adam 92
Sam 76
Andrew 66
Ian 35

To finish the evening, Camel Up (now properly called Camel Up, thanks to Adam reading the back of the box) was brought back to the table. The rules were explained to Adam, and before he could properly assimilate them, the camels were unleashed! Adam often claimed he didn’t know what to do, but he seemed to know how weigh up the probabilities.

Sam 39
Adam 32
Andrew 29
Ian 25

And after this, we were away into the night. Adam remarked that he should take more months off, because everyone seems to pleased to see him when he arrives. Speaking for myself, I don’t think he should be given choice of games next time. Or any time. Just saying.

Meanwhile, on the Form Table, my reign at the top comes to an abrupt end, with Sam and new-boy Adam fighting it out for top spot.

						Points
Sam	1	2	1	2	1	7
Adam	2	1	1	2	4	10
Joe	2	2	2	3	3	10
Martin	4	2	2	1	2	11
Andrew	3	3	2	1	3	12
Matt	3	3	3	1	4	14
Ian	4	4	3	3	2	16
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22