Race for the Dairy Milk

This week, GNN saw the return of a familiar face after a lengthy absence: Adam. It was great to see him again and in the ten minutes or so before the last of us gamers arrived, there was quite a lot of conversation about things while Ian and I were distracted by a box in the kitchen that, sadly, did not turn out to be a new game.

At this point, we were five - Sam, the host, Martin, Ian, Adam and me. We were expecting Andy B any time soon, so we thought a quick game of Fuji Flush would fill the time. As it happened, as the game was being unpacked, we heard the front door open and voices of welcome, telling us that he had arrived and so he was dealt in before he'd even got to the table.

Fuji is as Fuji does. No amount of text can replace actually being there. Suffice to say, Martin drew scorn for suddenly abandoning his attempt at foiling anyone on one card left and instead he put down a 15 to join with mine. He said he did it to guarantee joint second, to which Andy dismissively replied there's no second place in Fuji Flush, only losers and a winner. Who, it should be said, is usually me.

Andrew 0 cards left
Ian, Martin 1
Sam 2
Andy, Adam 3

Surprisingly few dick points, though.

After this, we split into two groups of three. Adam was keen to try Root (or Sam was keen for him to try it, I'm not sure which) and, not wanting to be a party-pooper, I agreed to be the third. Ian, Andy and Martin chose The Quest For Eldorado.

There was a period of simultaneous rules explanation since Adan and Andy were new to their relative games. I took the chance to read about my faction, the Marquis de Cat. It seemed like a more resource management type affair, somewhat removed from the aggressive Eyre, who were Adam's faction. Sam was the Woodland Alliance.

Adam's strategic sense shone through, despite him learning the game almost on the fly. Stanley watched the early stages, giving Adam the benefit of his considerable experience. Adam flooded the board with birds, moving them en masse in a rather intimidating blue wave.

Adam sportingly rolled a couple of these to give us a chance

I had decided to get buildings down as soon as possible, and ignore half of the board. But Adam's presence needed seeing to, and here my inexperience showed. I tried to ruin his decree by moving out of Fox enclosures, meaning he couldn't fight there. Alas, I left behind one of Sam's sympathy tokens and Adam fought that, keeping his decree intact.

Then, in an astonishing turn of events, Adam ended the game sooner than anyone could have guessed.

He reached ten points and picked up a Domination card, meaning he could win if he controlled three Fox enclosures. He asked if he'd won and Sam explained he'd win if those conditions were met at the start of his next turn.

He took it anyway, saying if was"fighty". So then Sam and I had to stop him. Sam cleared him out of one Fox clearance but I misunderstood what "control" meant. I thought he needed a roost there, so I ignored him and attacked Sam instead. Meanwhile, an ill Sam hadn't seen the Fox enclosure on my side of the board where Adam outnumbered me (the real criterion to control an area) so he couldn't advise me.

As such, when it was Adam's turn again, he asked "Have I won?" and Sam realised he had indeed. A schoolboy error.

Adam wins
Sam and Andrew "let Adam win"

I enjoyed it more this time, since I had a better idea of what was going on. Not good enough, though.

This sudden end meant that we finished at the same time as Eldorado was finishing. That had been a close race with a remarkable ending. Ian had positioned himself perfectly, blocking off the only grassy path. All he needed on his final hand was a card to move through grass. Despite having special cards to increase his hand size, he mostly got nothing but money. This meant an end to his chances, since Martin had found another way round and won on a tie breaker.

Martin, first and foremost
Ian, at least he got there
Andy, stuck in a lake

So we rearranged, and Andy, Adam and Ian played Flamme Rogue. Martin, Sam and I faced off over Azul.

Flamme Rogue was close, with Andy using his two cyclists to good blocking effect to keep his opponents at bay. It was still close, even to the end, with Andy just pipping Adam to the post by one space.

1. Andy
2. Adam
3. Ian

In the time it took them to play Flamme Rouge, we played two games. The first was the aforementioned Azul. In this game, Sam started poorly and improved while Martin started well (although always one point behind me) and then fell back, thanks to starting the fifth round with four rows already started. I did well.

Lots of options for the first to pick up the Player One token

Andrew 75
Martin 57
Sam 53

Then we banged out a quick round of Cobras, the trick taking game that demands that each player time when they win and when they lose to maximize their scores. It took a while to remember the rules, but I’m glad this got back to the table after too long away.

Martin 59
Andrew 49
Sam 31

Now we were all together again, we decided on a six-player game of Powerships, which was Ian and Andy's third race game of the evening. But first, there was the little matter of the game of Laying Out The Powerships Boards. “Why is it so difficult?” wailed Martin as, despite constant reference to the instructions, they never seemed to fit as they should.

But eventually, all the gaps had vanished and Adam had kindly supplied us with Dairy Milk chocolate to get us through the late hour so we were ready to speed off across infinite space. With walls, of course. Sam was sent the wrong way by grim fate before he’d got round buoy one. “I don’t want to roll a three… there’s a three,” probably sums up his game. Martin and I sped off, with Andy and Ian in close pursuit, but despite moments when it all could’ve been very different, Martin seemed to have the right number to get past most of the solar system without re-rolling anything.

1. Martin
2. Andrew
3. Ian
4. Andy
5. Adam
6. Sam

Then we played the Getting The Board Back In The Powerships Box game, which Sam won.

Adam set off home at this point, while we remaining five played Texas Showdown, with whiskey! As it should be played. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s not mentioned in the rules. I got badly stung in round one, picking up 6 tricks. You know, if you ignore round one, I actually did best. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to ignore round one, so I came third.

Martin 7
Sam 8
Andrew 10
Ian 11
Andy 12

And so we were done. Thanks for hosting, Sam and great to see Adam again. Cheers, all.

Played in Wales

A week in Wales with Mark, Katie, and the four sprogs meant that as well as the beach, chips and ice cream, we got plenty of gaming time as well. I took a couple of bags worth and all but three got played at some stage. Daytimes were often taken up with surfing...

Joe gets a push from Mark

...whereas the night - or the odd patch of rain - was about gaming. The hit of the week with Stanley and Peppa was Ninjato. I touched on this previously, but have since delved further into its depths with another four plays this week. I remain utterly terrible at it, whilst Stan won every time, to mine and Peppa's growing despair. It's fun calling Banzai, though the more I play the less 'lucky' the game feels - it's a tactical battle to keep control of Envoys and start rumours, which are as pertinent here as the cards in Stone Age.

Four skills, but I got nowhere

The early evenings were dominated by Insider, which everyone could and did get involved with. We played too many of these to count, but I was the Insider only once and every other player accused me! The successful Insiders, I noticed, didn't get too vociferous about accusing anyone. Sally was a terrible Insider too, but that was only because as soon as anyone accused her she hid her face in her hands. Mark, Katie and Peppa had the most success, whilst I offset my serial defeats with the joy to be found in the natural world outside:

that black thing is a bottle-nosed dolphin!

The other game that all the kids played was In a Bind - this was the Junior version, where there is marginally less physical challenge but the addition of making animal noises/waving/talking in a deep voice etc when you pick up a card. This is more fun than it might sound after a couple of glasses of the good stuff, but obviously the kids played it sober and seemed to like it too.

Peppa and Joe drew

Peppa, Stan and I also had a few goes at Cobras, which is another one I enjoy without ever getting close to winning. The closest I got was second place with game abandoned due to the late hour and surfing fatigue. I have never been so reluctant to bail on a game!

We managed one game of Near and Far, which my win at made some amends for continual thrashings on the Ninjato board. Mine and Stan's campaign game continues with me holding a slender lead overall...

Peppa and Stanley, both Near

...often the evenings had some kind of dance focus though, with Just Dance 2017 on the Nintendo galvanising all ages - with the exception of Joe - onto the floor. I have promised not to add any photos or videos of this, though, and considering some of them involve a balding tubster with no sense of rhythm, I'm happy to stick to that.

After kids had been scrambled to bed, we struck upon a pattern of Barenpark and Bandu. I had far more success in these arenas than I did Ninja-ing, Cobra-ing or Dancing, although Mark picked up a couple of wins in Barenpark. Tessellating bear houses was Katie's game of the week; in fact, although we also bashed out Wibbell and Honshu as well, Barenpark and Bandu were the nightly staples. Bandu got typically tense, and everyone had to perfect their 'Bandu Breath' - breathing off to one side so as not to disturb the fragile structures on the table...

Katie, breathing east

Late in the week though I thought it was worth introducing Mark to Flamme Rouge, which he fell in love with. It was a drunken Thursday night with everyone else in bed when we played three games in a row, Mark winning 2-1 with a deathly finish on the final race to clinch it!

This tablecloth did my nut in all week

We tried to introduce Katie to this cycling classic on our last night, but she felt she had done enough rule-learning for one week. So we stuck with Barenpark and Bandu, and when the ladies retired to bed Mark and I set up Flamme Rouge for one last race/game of the week; which Mark won, again on the final stretch!

We returned - heavy legged from the beach and heavy headed from margaritas, but sated. A lot of fun - Can't wait for Novocon now!

When Ben Rode the Snail

Tuesday, and despite a flurry of last-minute drop outs, there were still seven of us gathered around my kitchen table - Ian, Martin, Laura, Chris, Andrew, myself and long-time absentee Ben, who hadn't been seen in these here parts for a good half a year. Welcome back Ben!

We began the evening with a rousing game of Fuji Flush. This game's potential for volume is now nearing Hugo-like proportions, as the table regularly erupted in joy or dismay - but most often dismay. Andrew and Martin were down to their final card first, only for Laura, Ian and I to join them. Laura had the misfortune to pick up cards valued no higher than 4 though, which meant she kept going bust. My cards weren't much better. And fate was sealed when the Endersby/Griffith pair combined to win the game together:

Andrew/Martin 0 cards left
Ian/Laura/Sam 1 card left
Ben/Chris 3 cards left

With that appetiser out of the way, we moved on to the main courses of the evening. Ian seemed curious enough about Near and Far that we thought it worth recruiting another player, and Ben joined us at one end of the table as the other four played the barrel-rolling game that is Polterfass. I didn't see much of this, but I did hear that at one point Martin drank 46 beers. Really, the game should be called something else. It wasn't enough to out-booze Laura, either:

Laura 77
Martin 62
Chris 38
Andrew 6

 Nefertiti

They then set about haggling over presents for Nefertiti, whilst we continued adventuring in Near and Far. As explained in the previous post, there's a strong story element to the game, but the gist of it is that you're gathering adventurers to go off together and adventure, with the not-totally-hidden agenda of getting your camps down before anyone else - competitive tent-pitching, in a way. We don't mind bumping into each other on the road but if it happens in town, we have a duel, as appearances must be kept up.

Near and Far

Certain spots on the board trigger story elements where one reads out a passage from a book and something happens - or, as occurred to us, nothing happens. At least that was how the early stages went. Then Ben rescued a lady from a cage, and rode a giant snail. But his rewards were a phobia of caves and sores on his backside.

As you travel about you're gathering coins and gems - how many depends on how attentive your crew is - and spending them to purchase artefacts. Your crew can also help you fight and negotiate hazards. But somewhat perversely the adventurers don't like sharing space with other adventurers from their own faction, so there's a bit of personnel juggling at play.

Ian at the saloon

Over in ancient Egypt, they came to the end of Nefertiti before we finished Near and Far, and Chris won the Pharaoh's favour, despite buying the titular character a bunch of chairs - much to Martin's disdain:

Chriss 113
Andrew 89
Martin 88
Laura 84

They moved onto the trick-taker of the moment, Cobras, whilst we surged toward the end of our adventuring. It was a close-run thing, but in the end Ian won on his debut, whilst Ben was left to rue his decision to ride the snail:

Ian 68
Sam 65
Ben 54

Cobras was still in full swing, so Ben called it a night and Ian and I bashed out a couple of quick games in NMBR9 - the nines came out right at the end!

Sam 93
Ian 90

And 303, the Battle of Britain-themed bunfight in the air. Ian's job as the Luftwaffe was to reach London with his bomber, while my fighters tried to stop him. The Luftwaffe has fighters as well, but they are trying to shepherd the bomber forward and keep it from being attacked.

Ian attacks

It's a quite luck-heavy game (dice-rolling decides hits) but very-fast moving. Fortunately for London - and the world - I managed to blow up the bomber on round five:

Allies win
Nazis are defeated

By now they were scoring Cobras, and although Andrew had emerged the victor, every single one them broke the hundred mark!

Andrew 132
Martin 127
Laura 103
Chris 100

We polished off the evening with a game of Wibbell, notable in the main for Martin's alacrity of thought and Chris' silence until the last few rounds, where he suddenly burst into life and shouted out "Zither!" Or maybe that was Andrew. I don't remember now. I do recall shouting out "Moustachioed!" only to be beaten to the punch. If only I'd gone for Pistachio instead.

Martin 14
Sam 12
Andrew 8
Laura 6
Chris/Ian 4 each

It's a great game, Wibbell, but surprisingly tense. Possibly better as an evening-starter rather than an evening-ender? I was energised by it, but with the clock approaching 11, it was time to say goodnight.

Season’s End

This Tuesday was a grim looking one, with grey skies and vague suggestions of rain. But that wouldn’t stop seven gamers of dreaming of capping their season with a glorious run of form on its final day: Sam (the host), Joe, Katy, Ian, Martin, Andy and me.

I arrived bang on time, but found the fun was already underway, with Ian and Sam going head to head in NMBR9.

Sam 68
Ian 45

Katy was there too and before long, the rest of the gang had arrived. We split into two groups. At one end of the table, Sam, Martin, Joe and I began with NMBR9. This was mine and Martin's first go and, having watched baffled as other people played, I was keen to learn the secrets of this game.

The rules are very simple: just build up layers without overhanging or covering gaps. The shapes of the numbers, though, must've taken ages to get right during playtesting since they often seem to hint at a winning position without it ever really coming to fruition. This explains Martin's comment "It's already annoying.'

Sam mused on the role of the four: a low value, an awkward shape, but such a nice colour. I thought I'd done badly but I was quite pleased to have beaten Martin, whose maths skills are so strong he was able to tell us what he'd scored just by glancing at his tiles.

Sam 99
Joe 79
Andrew 50
Martin 46

"Right," said Martin in a tone of voice usually used before spitting on both palms, grabbing an axe and chopping down a tree, "we have to play again."

So we did. Sam had daddy duty to attend to upstairs, but we had no trouble remembering the few rules. Martin did slightly better this time.

Martin 103
Joe 84
Andrew 77

On the other half of the table, Andy, Katy and Ian began with For Sale. I was too engrossed in my game to pay it too much mind, but I did notice that Katy picked up both zeroes and lost a low bidding round with a decent highest card.

Andy 84
Ian 82
Katy 67

Then they dug out Port Royal which I think was Ian's suggestion. If so, it ruins my recent theory that the player most keen on a game does worst.

Ian 12
Katy 10
Andy 9

Then they whipped off a quick Beasty Bar. The scores, according to Katy's notes, were:

Andy 4 - 32
Katy 4 - 33
Ian 0

Katy left a note of explanation: "[Ian] went to the pub, night club too noisy!"

While this was happening, the four of us were knee deep in Montage, the crossword game from1973. It was Joe and me against Martin and Sam. Just like last time, I was very quick to get Martin's clues. For example, "every colour has one," I correctly guessed as "Vowel" because in the game, each of the five coloured tiles has a vowel. Both Sam and Joe complained that was far too meta.

In the end, though, Joe and I had enough of a connection to take the win. The general consensus was that it was a fun game, but very stressful.

Andrew & Joe 4
Sam & Martin 1

Then the trio broke out Flamme Rouge. The course (chosen at random) was completely flat: no hills at all. And while Katy and Andy set up, Ian took one of the little plastic cyclists, placed it on the neck of a beer bottle, stared at it, and then put it back on the table. Oh, the mysteries of Ian's internal workings.

Katy had an interesting strategy: one rider sped off ahead (using all three 9 cards in the first three turns) while the other lagged far behind in last. Andy was the only one to cross the finishing line, leaving the other two to rejoice in their shared defeat.

1st Andy
=2nd Katy
=2nd Ian

While this was going on, the quartet were playing Barenpark, the game that’s apparently impossible to play without saying it’s better than Cottage Garden.

Martin 89
Sam 82
Andrew 79
Joe 65

Finally we’d all finished together. Katy and I swapped seats and the gaming madness continued. The four of them launched into Cobras while Ian, Andy and I chose Hit Z Road.

I know little about Cobras, except for a dunken note of “stale peanuts” next to the results on my scrap of paper. However, Joe kindly gave Katy and I a lift home afterwards and he explained how satisfying the game was, especially since he always seemed to have the card that Martin didn’t want him to have.

Joe 109
Martin 92
Katy 57
Sam 46

Hit Z Road offered up the usual crazy and impossible escapes that your typical zombie movies have, complete with the ending of one guy still alive with no hope of escape as the credits roll. Ian rolled five targets to wipe out five zombies in one go, then Andy rolled four targets agaist five and later I rolled four against four.

Most impressively, though, was Andy’s last stand as his final survivor with his final die rolled one target after another and picked off six zombies. But then another six turned up and he died immediately.

I won merely by being last man standing.

Andrew: alive!
Andy & Ian: both dead!

Then we were all together for a game of Fuji Flush. I was too lazy to take note of the dick points but if memory serves, they were pretty rubbish, with 3s knocking out 2s and the like. Only Martin impressed, removing five 2s with an eleven, even though he could have joined in with a 2 of his own. Classic Martin.

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

And that was that! We all sped off, eager to be back home far too late for a weekday evening. As for the Division, despite Katy’s poor showing, no one else was able to put together a challenge to unseat her from the top. Adam’s points ratio is invincible.

And I think I’ll rest the Division for the summer months, since attendance gets a bit sparse and it becomes, dare I say it, a bit silly?

But that’s for the future! Next week, to be exact.

See you then!

Revolution nmbr 9

As England baked under a midsummer heatwave, Joe's call to host this week's event was met with a bumper response. Ten of us (Sam, Andy, Matt W, Matt K (previously known as Matt and Matt2 respectively), Martin, Katy, Ian, Adam, Chris and myself) arrived for an evening's entertainment that spilled out of Joe's kitchen and into the garden.

The first game to be done and dusted was Nmbr 9, a new game with Take It Easy tones in that everyone has the same options, which quickly diverge among the players.

Adam 95
Ian 79
Sam 61
Chris 50

I was one of the four lucky enough to start outside. Me, Martin, Joe and Matt K played Montage, a crossword game without any letters. Instead, colours stand for a group of letters.

The aim of the game is to give clues (maximum five words) to words whose letters fit the coloured counters on the board. It's a team game and you hope that your partner gets the clue (indicated by knocking on the table) before both - and it must be both - of your opponents do. The board is divided into nine sectors and the winning team is the one that gets a majority of its pieces in four sectors.

All of this takes place under the watchful eye of an hourglass. Everything in a turn: choosing the position, thinking of a clue, giving the clue, solving the clue, must happen before the sand runs out. Obviously, planning ahead is key.

I paired up with Matt and Joe was with Martin. Up against two giant intellects meant Matt and I were the underdogs. When Joe gave the clue "Prince's reign" and Martin got it with "purple" I thought we were in trouble. However, they were perfectly happy to go route-one with the clue "Number two" from Martin, meaning "poo" which Joe got without even looking at the board.

Martin & Joe 4
Matt & Andrew 1

Inside, Adam, Ian, Chris and Sam were flying the flag for chunky Eurogame with Raiders Of The North Sea. While Matt1 and Katy waited for Andy to arrive, at which point they threw themselves into Flamme Rouge. I know nothing other than the result.

Early days with Flamme Rouge and Raiders...

1. Andy
2. Matt
3. Katy

They followed this with Nmbr 9.

Matt 86
Andy 61
Katy 56

Meanwhile, us outside moved onto Movable Type, continuing the recent trend for word games. Joe sold it to us by saying "It has a fun aspect."

Sheer folly!

This time, there are four rounds of trying to make the highest scoring word using the five cards in your hand and three open cards that anyone can use. The better you do, the more cards you can take from the array of all cards that were used that round. Then, in the fifth and final round, those cards would be used to make the highest scoring word you can manage.

A ha ha!

Martin 20 (he won with Mashable)
Joe 19 (ticketing)
Andrew 17 (fleshy)
Matt K 16 (jilted) (I think. Can’t read my writing)

Apart from the marauding Vikings in the North Sea, the rest of us had finished our games at the same time, so we had a quick reshuffle. Katy, Joe and Martin brought a card table outside and played Cobras.

Cobras in the long grass

Joe was first to hit the game ending score, but then fell back due to negative cobras on his card at the end of the round. This allowed a delighted Katy ("We've screwed Joe!") to grab a win.

Katy 113
Joe 105
Martin 75

An unimpressed cat

Meanwhile, Andy, me and the two Matts played Escape From The Aliens In Outer Space. This is a game of hidden identities and escaping and/or attacking. I didn't have much of an clue how to play, and the game for me may as well have been called Have A Nice Stroll Through A Spaceship.

My unhelpful notes during Escape...

The two Matts were more clued in. Alien Matt W killed Human Matt K early on, just because Matt K made a noise near him. This meant the last human, Andy, had to escape. He managed to get to an escape pod, but it malfunctioned. Rather than try to walk across to another escape pod, he played a card the allowed him to mutate into an alien and the game ended in a draw.

Not a bad game. Would probably have been more fun if I'd known what was going on.

Still playing Raiders...

On the card table, Cobras had been replaced by Eggs of Ostrich.

Martin 15
Katy 10
Joe 9

The four of us played Andy's print and play (and laminate) version of Red7. After a rules explanation, I played a card that immediately knocked newcomer Matt K out. A very steep learning curve. But he came back well, and we ended after three rounds. We had to, since the light had faded so much that most of round three was played under the light from my mobile phone.

Really quite dark now

Matt K 39
Andy 12
Matt W 0
Andrew 0

By now Raiders of the North Sea had ended. Everyone else had gone through multiple games and rules explanations, but the pure of heart on one half of Joe's kitchen table had gone through an epic. A game, after which, they all stood around proudly and talked about what they'd just done.

Nearing the end of the game

Ian 43
Adam 39
Sam 36
Chris 31

And they even managed to squeeze in a game of Nmbr 9. Ian quickly said he’d got off to a bad start. I couldn’t tell how he knew this so I took a photograph, hoping that one day I’d look back and understand what he’d meant.

He was right, though.

Adam 72
Chris 67
Sam 61 (“Again!”)
Ian 52

Finally, we were all together and all inside. So we went for a rule-stretching 11-player game of 6nimmt. We could only manage two rounds before time caught up with us. Short, but agonising, as the quotes I jotted down demonstrate:

“Joseph, you wanker!” me, probably.

“It’s like golf!” Ian

“My dreams were ruined years ago.” Sam

“I’m going to get boned and not in a good way.” Katy

It ended like so:

Adam 10
Matt K 12
Matt W 14
Chris 14
Sam 19
Ian 28
Katy 35
Andy 39
Joe 39
Martin 43
Andrew 52

Thanks all. A bit of a classic.

Snakes on a game

A week. It's a long time in politics, especially this past week, but it's an age and a half for the GNN regulars eager to match wits over Sam's kitchen table.

We began as a two, with Sam showing me (Andrew) Mint Works. It's a worker placement game in a tiny tin box. We didn't get anywhere near finishing a game, but I played enough to recognise the familiar "Get stuff to get stuff" mechanic at its heart.

First, Matt and Joe arrived and Sam invited his son down for a couple of rounds of Insider. For these, little Joe was always the Master.

In game one, Sam guessed right (ruler) but was not voted as the Insider. Instead, suspicion fell on me since, according to Sam, I had my funny face on. But it wasn't me either. It was Joe, who none of us had even considered!

In game two, Katy was now present and involved. Katy guessed right (the World Cup) but wasn't voted as the insider. Instead it was between me and Matt and a 3-3 vote meant that the Insider won. It was Matt.

I am yet to be the Insider.

Now we were ready for a real game so, with little Joe back in bed, we chose Cobras, a new trick taking game. The game is loosely based on a real event: in India, during the British Raj, there was a problem with a large cobra population, so the British offered a bounty for each dead cobra. Thus lead to the locals breeding cobras just for the bounty. When the British found out, they dropped the scheme, so then all the suddenly worthless cobras were released into the wild, leaving them worse off than when they started.

The game itself is a card game where losing tricks allows you to collect cobras and winning a trick allows you to sell them. But there is an optimal amount. More than that and the value of your pile of cobras suddenly drops in value.

It's all about timing. Losing and winning to maximize your potential. Any unused cobras you have at the end of the round count as negative points. Technically, Matt ended round one on -6 but we allowed him to stay on zero. We're so generous.

Then Sam got stung at the end of round two with fourteen unsold cobras. Neither of them recovered before Katy hit 75 and triggered the end of the game.

Katy 75
Andrew 64
Joe 49
Sam 44
Matt 44

Next up was Blockers! Rarely suggested but always enjoyed, this Knizia-ish game (but not by the great German, as I wrongly assumed) is an underrated gem.

Having said that, I did badly. I'm reminded of Ian's recent poor performance at Railways Of The World after he was so keen to play it. Maybe there is such a thing as Chooser's Curse, whereby those most excited to play a game are least likely to do well.

It was Katy's first game, I believe, which would explain why she couldn't tell how well she was doing. She constantly bemoaned her fate right up until the moment the scores were added up.

Katy 5
Sam 6 (fewest tiles)
Matt 6 (fewer tiles)
Joe 6 (most tiles)
Andrew 7

Katy did, at least, look a bit embarrassed when she discovered how misplaced her pessimism was. Talking of pessimism, Joe announced near the end of the game he'd split his tiles into two groups: "Can't play" and "Will lose me the game."

As for me, well, I entertained the crowd with my straight line right across the board, but starting in the centre meant I was quickly surrounded. Not a good tactic.

Next up was Perudo. So long it remained unloved and alone until its sudden and welcome revival.

In this game, Katy got into an early death spiral, followed by Sam, but Matt was first out. At the end it was between me and Joe, with three dice each. Not a good time for a death spiral, but that's what I got. Joe ended a comfortable winner.

Joe
Andrew
Katy
Sam
Matt


Finally, there was time for two games of Fuji Flush. I was too lazy to record dick points, but had to make a note when Joe pulled off his big swinging dick! All of us had played twos, and he swept them off the table with a nine. Well played.

In the first game, I won again! At the time, I said it was four wins out of five, but I was wrong: it was four wins in a row! I really must do a Fuji Flush division.

Andrew 0
Sam 1
Matt 2
Joe 2
Katy 3

In the second game, Katy got off to a flier, managing to push through twice in the space of playing two cards! Classy stuff. Not enough to steal first place from Matt, but worth a mention.

Matt 0
Andrew 1
Katy 1
Joe 1
Sam 3

And so we were done. We set off back home, happy and enriched. Thanks all!