LoV thy neighbor

Tuesday at Joe's saw nine gamers squashed into his kitchen. There was a feel of a reunion in the air, with recent absentees Sam and Matt returning and Adam making a rare journey across the M32 to join us.

We began as a seven, bashing out a quick Fuji Flush while we waited for late arrivals Chris and Matt. I was too sober to keep track of Dick Points, but there were plenty. I got lucky, picking up a 20 when I was on my last card.

Andrew 0 cards left
Martin 1
Adam 2
Sam 3
Ian 3
Katy 3
Joe 4

After that, with everyone assembled, we split into three groups of three. Sam, Martin and Matt chose a new game, King of Siam. Since it was a small game, they set up Joe's rickety card table and started playing.

Joe, Katy and Ian instantly formed a cabal of Lords of Vegas players, leaving Adam, Chris and I to decide what to play, given the space limitations. We perused Joe's wall of shelves, finding reasons not to play most of them. Finally, we chose Castles of Burgundy, since we all knew it (Chris a bit less) and had to get cracking.

King of Siam looked, as Chris (I think) pointed out, like a game based on the Intrigue option in El Grande. I know nothing about it, other than the groans of analysis paralysis that drifted over from time to time. It seems to be a game with no score, only a winner.

Sam 1st
Martin and Matt not 1st

Lords of Vegas started with Joe speeding into an early lead ("But only on points," he modesty insisted, as if the game would be decided based on happiness). The early stages saw a lack of conflict, leading Katy to invent a new word: Harmogenous. A mix of harmony and homogeneous, we assumed.

On Castles of Burgundy I sped off, Joe-like, into an early lead. Picking up small areas quickly gave me a considerable advantage. Adam was offering occasional rules explanations to the inexperienced Chris and as they closed the gap midgame, and I became paranoid that Adam had a master plan to make him first, Chris second and me last.

Mid-game, my lead is seemingly insurmountable

On the card table, Sam, Matt and Martin had started on Hit Z Road, Martin Wallace's atypical apocalypse game. When I asked for an update midgame, Sam insisted he was surely at death's door, but in the final reckoning he held on long enough.

Martin 16
Sam 7
Matt 0 (ie, dead)

Lords of Vegas was next to end. The feeling of harmogeny had evaporated after Ian and Joe locked horns over a mega casino on the Strip. It had grown from a curious set up, which I thought looked like those Chess puzzles you see in newspapers, like "How should yellow play to maximize chances of success?"

What would you do?

With some sprawling and a lot of reorganizing, the casino changed hands many times. Katy got in on the action, too, when she claimed a plot that had been sprawled into.

At the end, though, it was in Joe's hands when the Strip paid out for the last time. Enough to get him clear of his rival Ian. Meanwhile, Katy's unchallenged six-tile Casino simply didn't bring in enough punters.

Joe 49
Ian 40
Katy 36

Castles of Burgundy was still some way from being over, so the six of them played Insider, the cunning game of trying to look like you have no idea what is going on. Unsurprisingly, the dark horse Matt won since he was the Insider but was not discovered.

Finally, Castles came to an end. Adam had taken the lead, and I was desperate to finish my seven-tile city. In round four, Chris had (unwittingly) taken the building that would've ended it for me, but as the tiles for the last round were dealt out, I was relieved to see three tiles that would save me and, since I was going second, victory was assured.

They've almost caught me!

Andrew 228
Adam 210
Chris 160

The other six kindly waited for our game to end, so we finished the evening with a nine player game: 6nimmt.

We dealt in Dirk, to bring the number of players up to the maximum ten. And we made a vow that if Dirk finished in first, we'd immediately give up board games forever.

A vow that caused concern when, during round two, Dirk was actually in first place. Luckily as time went on, Dirk's supernaturally prescient game play left him, and by the end of round two he was joint sixth with Chris and Matt.

Joe, though, was having a nightmare. Two rounds left him teetering on the brink, with 65 points. The end of the game was all but assured. Adam's clear final round tied up the win.

Adam 14
Katy 29
Ian 32
Sam 44
Matt 46
Martin 49
Chris 52
Dirk 55
Andrew 56
Joe 82

Beaten by Dirk. How annoying. But, thanks to the auto suggest option on my phone, we can ask Dirk what he thought about the game by typing in "6nimmt" and seeing what happens:

"6nimmt you so bad for her birthday."

Thanks, Dirk.

And that was it. Thanks to all for an unforgettable night!

Where there's a will

As Ben, Ian and I discussed events of the day suddenly lightening flashed, thunder boomed. Then the doorbell rang: it was Joe, soon followed by Chris, and finally a slightly damp-looking Andrew, who didn't escape the downpour. The rest of us wrapped up our game of Pairs as it stood (Chris won) and went into the front room to discuss options.

I kept mentioning Lancaster, but nobody seemed that interested. However, as the discussion slowly broke down into a kind of collective diffidence, I realized people were weakening: I pushed for Lancaster again, and managed to rope in Joe and Ian. Ben also returned to the kitchen, allowing Chris and Andrew to make the choice for the other game: they went with Castles of Burgundy.

I talked Joe and Ian through the rules of Lancaster, and we were off. Because the heart of the game is worker-placement/bumping, the finesse of it comes in the voting for laws: at the end of each round certain laws reward certain players, so how you spend your votes (you potentially have many) can be crucial. Ian and I didn't manage to prevent Joe from ushering in a 9point swing in his favour, as he was rewarded for battling the French in three different places. In the early rounds I decided against screwy moves, and in the later rounds I failed to stop myself making stupid ones: twice I voted the wrong way on something - after the first do-over, there was no excuses.

Joe sped off into the lead and stayed there. Ian and I battled for second, and during the final round I realized that the strength of my knights meant I was looking at third place - so it ended. I didn't jot down the scores, but Joe was miles ahead on the scoretrack and Ian a solid 8 points or so ahead of me. Joe didn't rate the game though, only being able to raise a shrug of indifference. Maybe it was too easy. Conversely Ian and I liked it; the hidden voting gives it a flavour that Waterdeep doesn't have.

Castles of Burgundy was still ongoing, so Joe dealt out the cards for Money. This was new to me, but the rules are simple enough, as long as you're no fool. I was a fool, however, and had misunderstood the scoring to the point where I was literally throwing away points during the game, allowing Joe to pick them up. He won with a thousand points; Ian had 870 and I - thinking I was about to pull off a debut win - had a measly 520. I wouldn't mind trying this again, but it did feel a little like a mechanic more than a game.

Castles of Burgundy was finally over, and Andrew had pulled off a solid win:

Andrew 186
Chris 166
Ben 129

And while Andrew headed off into the night, the rest of us played Not Alone, Joe's new game of alien predation/human survival. Joe took the role of the alien, trying to second-guess our human destinations as we roamed the planet, holding on until the rescue ship arrived.

It was a close thing at the end: we were staring up at the sky, waving excitedly at the rescue ship, when Joe stole in and sucked the will out of Ben in a gruesome end to the evening.

It's all Kicking off in the Forum

Murder in the Forum was the abstract strategy game Andrew picked up at the UK Board Game expo while I (Sam) was loading up with kids' games. Tonight we got the opportunity to see whether it could hold it's own against HABA.

The game takes place in the forum just after a civilised debate has deteriorated into violence. Players are trying to surround each other to 'take' pieces, but depending on where you are on the board this may involve two attackers, or three, or even four. Additionally, there are two guards and a magistrate who keep changing sides every time a piece is taken; the guards will assist you in rubbing people out, whereas the magistrate will protect anyone (from either side) who is adjacent to him.

At the start I couldn't see where the conflict would come from - it seemed long a drawn-out Mexican stand-off. Andrew finally drew first blood, but we were still circling warily. Then I hit upon the tactic of, whilst in control of the guards (who are more aggressive than the schoolmasterly magistrate) to line up two killings: one with the guards, then one immediately afterwards to bring them back under my control. This seemed to give me momentum Andrew couldn't stop, and I picked up the win.

We both enjoyed it, and I'd like to play it again, though I can't see it being a GNN hit for a number of reasons; mainly, it only plays two.

Next up was Castles of Burgundy. It had been a while but we know this old friend like the back of our hand and needed very little refreshing. Andrew surged into an early lead and I surged back. But then my plans to complete an 8-hex bonus came to nothing, and such was Andrew's success it may have made no difference anyway... it was a floor-wiping:

Andrew 182
Sam 145

We finished off with the HABA games I mentioned earlier, trying out Pharaoh's Gulo Gulo for two - it's better with more, but was still fun. Andrew overcame his initial phobia of blue balls to clinch a win.

Then we played a couple of games of Space Planets, and I won both. In this game you're trying to roll a die geographically - what's on the die is less important than where it stops. Our first game saw some pretty diabolical rolling in this regard, but we picked up the pace.

And having gone from dry abstract to full-on Euro to two men with a combined age of ninety playing games for children, we called it a night.

Clueless Whisper

With Andrew, Matt and Katy late withdrawals, and Joe also absent, a mere four of us - Ian, Andy, Martin and myself (Sam) converged on Hannah and Adam's house for our now seven-year tradition. I think it's seven years for GNN anyway; I seem to recall pre-blog we were playing at Lower Cheltenham Place fortnightly, alternating with poker nights...?

Anyway with Martin and Sarah expecting and Joe's eldest now babysitting for myself and Sally it seems a time to reflect. Or maybe that's the Castles of Burgundy talking... more of that in a moment.

lateral

We began with a little light Codenames. I say it's light, but of course if you're the spymaster it's anything but. Apparently I kept talking Ian out of choosing Martin's words, but he was a model of poker-faced-blankness throughout, and probably gave the best clue of the night in "chopsticks" for Beijing and piano (I still contest the idea that 'Singapore' is a great clue for Beijing though). Either way, we sailed reasonably serenely to victory as spymaster Andy - a model of poker-faced-indifference - couldn't quite keep pace:

Martin, Ian and Sam: best spies
Andy, Hannah and Adam: second-best spies

Adam and Hannah fancied a turn at being spymasters so we changed teams slightly. Adam, Martin and Ian got off to a strong start and surged to a healthy lead. We needed to correctly identify our last two cards in one shot to nab the win - and we did it!

Hannah, Andy and Sam: best spies
Adam, Ian and Martin: second best spies

We'd expended an hour on Codenames so we briskly moved on to the meat of the evening. On a whim I'd brought Castles of Burgundy along and to my surprise both Andy and Adam jumped at the chance to play it. The others plumped for Ra, and when I looked over after ten or so minutes I thought they must have ploughed through the first epoch as they had so many tiles, but apparently it was just Ra - who was reluctant to show himself. I lost track of what they were doing eventually, but Martin took a convincing victory:

Martin 56
Hannah 42
Ian 35

A whole load of disaster

By the time they'd ended we had probably just reached the second round of Castles. It took a while to set up and then Adam needed a refresher, during which time I discovered I'd been playing a rule wrong. I'm going to take all my wrong rules and post them as variants on BGG.

For Adam it had been a while, whereas Andy had been playing regularly on his phone. His strategy was to ignore boats entirely, whilst I spent the early game picking them up to ensure I'd complete them first and would always be first player - with first dibs on everything. I also tried to fill as many small areas as I could for the bonuses. Halfway through the game I was a good 25 points clear of the others, but they both surged back to leave me in third.

France

Andy continued to surge throughout the rest of the game, and Adam at one point completed some massive building area and scored about 40 points for one tile. In the end my end-game bonuses saved me from ignominy, as Andy took a very convincing victory:

Andy 238
Sam 211
Adam 201

It was two hours since we'd started playing and even Martin had got bored of pointing out how long we were taking. It's true to say they played a few more games than we did - Sticheln finished as an utter trouncing for Martin:

Martin 35
Hannah 0
Ian -2

colour me pointless

But Hannah got her revenge in Love Letter:

Hannah: 3 cubes
Martin/Ian: 1 cube each

With 11o'clock looming there was just time for Pairs, much loved (by myself and Martin) and loathed (by Andy and Adam). I think Ian did like it, but might not after tonight. His capacity for going bust brought to mind his early days with 6Nimmt, although with Pairs it really is the luck of the draw. Martin kept finishing second, so much so that after four rounds he was poised to win on 20 points. I was on 19points and needed to finish ahead of him... with my cards showing 15 and Martin's 14 I could have stuck and hoped he went bust, but where was the fun in that?

I went bust.

Martin 24
Sam 19
Andy 15
Adam 9
Hannah 9
Ian 9

A great night for Martin on the leaderboard, with one Tuesday to go before the end of the season!

It's only Rockleycon but I like it

Friday

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

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

Paul 123
Andrew 109
Sam 97
Chris 89

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

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

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

Chris 44
Paul 31
Andrew 29

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

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

Sam 64
Chris 63
Andrew 60
Paul 56

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

Chris 649
Sam 587
Andrew 583
Paul 550

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

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Chris 6
Paul 4

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

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

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


Saturday

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

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

Andrew 26
Sam 18
Paul 1

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

Andrew 24
Sam 17
Paul 13
Chris 12

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

Ho ho.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew 211
Sam 185
Chris 172
Paul 168

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

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

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

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

Sam 199
Chris 184
Paul 165
Andrew 163

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

Chris 68
Andrew 54
Sam 31
Paul 6

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

Andrew 58
Chris 47
Sam 39
Paul 33

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

Chris 61
Andrew 55
Sam 52
Paul 44

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

Andrew 16
Sam 32
Paul 39
Chris 75

Sam 23
Andrew 32
Paul 48
Chris 63

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

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

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

Sam 120
Paul 102
Andrew 98
Chris 85

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

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

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


Sunday

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

Andrew 8
Chris 5

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

Andrew 5
Sam 4
Paul 3 + cash
Chris 3

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

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

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

Sam 31
Andrew 15
Paul 6
Chris 2

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

Paul 20
Andrew 13
Sam 12
Chris -8

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

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

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

If you knew Zeusy like I know Zeusy

No big pre-Christmas event this year, but Sam and I got together for an evening of games before the big day. Sam’s first suggestion was Olympos. It required some specialised two-player rules to be introduced, but otherwise the game played out the same. So with Sam already familiar with the rules (of which there are surprisingly few) he talked me through it and we were away.

A slightly embarrassed Zeus keeps track of his game

The game was far quicker than before. With two players, the amount of analysis paralysis was greatly lessened. On the other hand, Zeus barely shut up, with Olympos cards being triggered every couple of turns. With only two players, this meant that one player was rewarded while the other was punished. There was no third option of just doing enough to avoid those cards by not being last. This, perhaps, robbed the game of a certain subtlety. Sam came out a confident winner.

Sam 48
Andrew 27

But on its second outing, it still didn’t really impress Sam. I have the same opinion as Ian – I’d like to try it again to see if perhaps I’d missed something. Maybe three players is the sweet spot? Despite it’s map and swords, it’s not a war game. The aggressor always wins – it just takes them more time. And with Sam having the most Zeus tokens, he could push the game on, without fearing the wrath of the gods in the slightest, leaving me at a bit of a disadvantage.

After this, we played Linkee. This quiz game is aimed at the family market and contains four easy questions per card. The difficult bit is working out how the four answers are connected. Like a dumbed-down version of Only Connect, it’s a fun diversion: easy enough to make you feel smug about yourself while still hard enough that victory isn’t guaranteed.

One "E" away from victory

Having said that, Sam won this time, and then again when we played it at the end of the night.

But it was still early, so there was more games to be had. Castles of Burgundy was brought out. In round one, I looked at the tiles available and I decided to go for animals, since no one ever goes after them, and it seemed to work. One herd of cows got me 43 points during the game. Plus, I got a couple of useful bonuses. I led throughout the game and Sam’s last round of spoiling tactics and his large collection of tiles for completing areas wasn’t enough to complete the gap. The game was also notable for the constant battle for going first, since that seemed to be advantageous to our plans.

Andrew 192
Sam 179

And then we played Biblios.

Has this game lost some of its mystery? Sam and I sped through a game, fully at home with the rules and the strategies. But halfway through the auction round, I realised I was in a fix. I couldn’t possibly win two dice (which added up to six) while I was certain to win the other three (which only added up to four).

Since we don’t shuffle the auction pile in GNN Towers (and Sam and I reinstated the tie-breaker rule of leftmost die wins since I do believe it makes for a better game) I knew that the last card to be auctioned was a church card that allowed you to change the value of the cards. I thought it was a card that let you change two dice. This would’ve given me the win, since I had the brown dice in the bag, but when it was unveiled, it only changed one. And that’s how I lost by a single point.

Sam 6
Andrew 5

And that’s also why our tie-breaker is better than the official one. You try having a strategic battle like that when the tie-breaker is only “who has most gold left over?” Yawners.

Then there was one last game of Linkee, which I already mentioned before that Sam won, before Sam sped off into the night, Christmas stretching out in front of us. Season’s greetings, everyone.

Dr Feld and Mr Biblios

Stefan Feld has been on the table - figuratively - more often than not these past few weeks. We finally played Amerigo, and then played it again - and Macao has also been spotted recently. And then last night Andrew and I played Castles of Burgundy. What is it about Feld's games that make them (subjectivity warning) so good?

If that sounds like I have a theory I don't, I was just wondering. I'm sure there's heaps on BGG for anyone who wants to wade through it. I do like the fact there is a seam of luck (dice in Macao and CoB, the Tower in Amerigo) running through otherwise dry games though. 

Anyway we began expanding our Burgundian Realms with no hesitation, apart from the confusion I always have over shipping and laying boat tiles. Two different things! 

Graham Coxon supplied the watery soundtrack by singing the words Caspian Sea 50,000 times (jump to the three minute mark for full-on Caspian misery). I still don't know why he put that thing on an otherwise perfectly palatable album. It's a Whodunnit for the 21st century.

not my table, but the table of maeddes

Castles was a game of really fine margins. Andrew completed his mines just before I did. I jumped ahead of him on buildings. On the last round I had just enough workers to do what I wanted. But the clincher was the fact I was starting player on round four and grabbed the bonus tile for shipped colors.

Sam 197

Andrew 196

If anyone hasn't played CoB yet sorry about the above paragraph.  

And then we played Biblios. 

It's been a while since this game has seen the table but it remains a classic for us. It's such a wonderful combination of strategising, gambling and bluff, aligned with the tantalizing possibility of telling someone you love to eat shit when you hand them 1 gold (Extreme Biblios is otherwise identical to the base game). 

dice pic courtesy Zombiegod

I thought I had things in hand with a strong showing on blues, greens and reds, and I was blissfully increasing the greens value, unaware that Andrew was about to outscore me:

Andrew 9

Sam 5

And with the Mr Biblios crown atop his head, Andrew drifted regally into the night.

Felds of Glory

Monday night, and Andrew and I arranged one of our little two-player sorties into gaming territory. Before Andrew got there and with the boys out for the count upstairs, I started popping the in my new copy of Stefan Feld game Amerigo. Ten minutes later I was still at it when Andrew arrived... both of us were tempted to try it, but with plenty more gaming to come this week, not quite tempted enough to embark on what looked an epic voyage. Amerigo will have to call slightly louder next time, though I very much look forward to it.

Instead we broke out another Feld, Castles of Burgundy, which I had proposed earlier in the day. Apparently there are still GNNers among us who haven't played this - more abstract than Macao, but, with the right players (ie Andrew and I, who probably don't think enough) faster-moving also.

Burgundy

However it's also, as Andrew noted, very much a multi-player solitaire with player interaction minimal to non-existent - at least, until the latter stages of the game when some tactical play is open to you in closing off your opponents preferred strategy... but this must be balanced with achieving your own aims. I blow slightly hot and cold with this game but tonight it really scratched an itch for both of us. I ran out a narrow-ish winner thanks to a player board with loads of options of area bonuses.

Sam 197
Andrew 174

It was early yet, and we were both in the mood for Raj, the instant hit of the last 2 or 3 weeks. With two players the potential for hilarity is admittedly less than 3 or 4, but it still had us giggling like goons at several stages and cursing like dockers at others.

Two tied bids, a decider about to come

We kept playing one more game until we'd managed a best of five, which Andrew won by 3 games to 2, twice narrowly outbidding me on the final game as I attempted to keep my powder dry for the final tiles, by which time the jig was up.

The jig up in game three, where our last cards tied

Lots of fun, played to a soundtrack of my birthday CD, and a great primer for tomorrow. Thanks Andrew!

Thinking about the No-Joe Show

Next week is the Christmas GNN, but unfortunately Joe can’t make it that day. I started wondering if there was a way of him joining in the fun, even though he wasn’t physically there. In the event that he can’t rustle up a games night of his own, I started wondering if there are any games that he can play by phone or text.

The first, and most sensible answer I came up with was the online version of Brass. It works fine on a mobile phone, no worries. And I’m sure that there are other similar apps that offer you a chance to play your favourite board game remotely.

But then I started thinking, what about an actual physical board game? Are there any that he could join in with? We could even have an empty chair and a glass of cranberry juice to mark his presence.

Auction games would be impossible, so Ra and Medici are both out. Similarly, any games where you have to share cards, like 7 Wonders or Kakerlakenpoker, can’t be done.

After some thought, I decided that Incan Gold is playable over the phone. As long as we tell him what’s going on, he can keep track of the game quite easily, I reckon.

Stone Age, too, is a possibility. It’s more complicated: he’d need to set it up himself and pick out the cards and huts as they’re revealed by us, but otherwise it may be possible to play this over the phone. And I’m sure we can rely on him to be honest about his dice rolls, as we will be honest about ours.

Castles of Burgundy could also be done, but that’s because it mostly feels like everyone’s playing a solo game anyway. He could just play on his own, and then text in his results. Not terribly interactive. But then, CoB doesn’t have a great deal of player interaction anyway.

The Resistance might be possible with a little preparation. We’d have to know the number of players well beforehand and then put a spy/resistance card in an envelope and give it to him earlier that day. Preferably at a park bench, while wearing trench coats and black leather gloves. Then, when we come to play the game, he opens the envelope, the rest of us draw the remaining cards, and we play with Joe on speaker phone! It’d be fun!

And I’d love to know if it could be possible to do the same with RotW. It’d have to be by text, since two and a half hours on speaker phone would wipe out most phone’s batteries. As long as Joe doesn’t mind passing on every auction then, once we’d got the board set up in both houses, it may be possible. Or is that just a crazy dream?

Of course, there are probably apps and websites that do all this for you. But it would be nice to have him physically there, if not in person, at least in meeple.

Everyone's a tinner, babe, and that's the truth

GNN tonight saw two errant sheep safely back in the fold, namely Quentin and Gonz. The rest of us sheep (me, Sam, Adam and Joe) were just grateful to have some new faces to look at.

We began with a big six-player game, Kakerlakenpoker. This game of bluff (simply hand a card to your opponent face down, tell them what it is, and if they can prove you wrong, you lose) is simple but also somewhat lacking. Adam simply sticks to the least-risk strategy of looking at the card and passing it on. Like always using the low leg sweep in Way Of The Exploding Fist on the ZX Spectrum. Sure, you win, but there’s no fun. Plus he always handed his card to Quentin who, after a couple of early bad guesses, was in last so he never challenged and handed the card on to someone else, leaving Adam safe.

I, meanwhile, found that everyone believed whatever I said which was annoying because I was always telling the truth. I started lying (and also, I started giving the card to Adam, since he never challenged) which helped a bit, but not enough.

Adam
Sam / Joe
Gonz
Andrew
Quentin

After this, the six of us split into two groups of three. Gonz, Adam and Joe went for Castles of Burgundy since, according to Gonz, it didn’t take that long. Quentin, Sam and I chose the perennial favourite, Tinners’ Trail.

We shared Sam’s kitchen table and got to work. Quentin had played before, but got a quick rule refresher and before long, we’d begun! In the first round, Sam made the mistake of helping Quentin. Something he would regret later on. But otherwise, I started appallingly, having to pretty much write off the first round as a mistake. Copper had bottomed out at a miserable £2, and only tin was worth it at £5 a piece.

I came back into it in the second and third rounds, and by the fourth round, I was hoping for a more bouyant copper market to carry me to a decent score. Quentin, though, wanted both tin and copper to collapse, since he already had a commanding lead but no resources left. As it was, copper fell right back down to £2, but tin was back at £5 again. My plan was hobbled, but could Sam catch Quentin?

In the end, he couldn’t quite find enough. It was a close game and although last is still last, I feel like I almost came first. Sam must be kicking himself he ever gave friendly advice to Quentin.

Quentin 105
Sam 104
Andrew 99

It was a great game and we all sailed close to the wind in terms of cash balances. Twice during the game, all three of us were at £0 in our reserves. Given the prices available, I doubt we could’ve done much better. It’s impossible to tell.

By the time we’d finished, Castles of Burgundy was still slowly grinding its way through round three. We considered another game to fill the time until they finished, and chose Biblios. It had been a while since I’d played this game and, again, Quentin needed a reminder of the rules. And, again, this proved to be a mistake.

Like before, it was a close game, but with Quentin going for the higher valued brown dice, he scraped a win on a tie-breaker

Quentin 5 + browns
Sam 5
Andrew 4

Phew. After another close-run competition, we sat back exhausted and looked over to see how Castles of Burgundy was doing. They were just about to begin the final round. We stayed to watch. After all, after such a marathon, it seemed wrong to say goodbye as they were entering the final straight.

But it seemed clear that Gonz was going to win and judging by Joe’s dejected demeanour he was not expecting to snatch second from Adam at the last minute. And that is how it turned out. The game ended with everyone’s brain fried and Joe insisting that it’s a lot more fun as a single player game. Which it is. Gonz said he felt sad when he tried to play board games solo, but I reassured him that after a while you get over it.

Gonz 204
Adam 186
Joe 168

After this, Sam was keen for another six player game. Then Quentin left, and Sam suggested a five player game: Contract Whist? Or No Thanks? This second option got Adam’s attention, and Sam went next door to get it. While he was out, we all put our coats on. Sam came back in, taking off the box’s elastic band in readiness before he noticed there wasn’t the desire to keep playing. Especially with Roll For The Soul on Thursday and then Novocon on Saturday and Sunday. We set off into the crisp November air, our gaming thirst quenched.

For a couple of days, at least.

Adam rises to first on the form table, and Quentin leaps above me, despite still having a red five weighing him down.

						Points
Adam	2	1	3	1	2	9
Sam	2	2	2	1	3	10
Joe	3	2	2	4	2	13
Gonz	1	3	5	2	3	14
Chris	1	1	3	4	5	14
Quentin	1	1	5	3	5	15
Andrew	3	3	4	4	5	19
Hannah	2	5	5	5	5	22
Steve	2	5	5	5	5	22
Anja	3	5	5	5	5	23