Put up your Dukes

What supernatural force dragged three gamers out of their warm homes and into the biting Siberian winds this Tuesday night? What tempted us towards Joe's house where he waited for us, not so much a host, more a Siren, calling gamers to dash their dreams of victory against his jagged rocky shoreline of defeat.

We were a group of just four: Joe, Ian Katy and me. Joe was angling for a game of The Ruhr (I think), a new "old school" eurogame that involves the shipping of coal. Neither the theme nor the playing length attracted me - it would have taken up almost all of the evening - so Katy's suggestion of Lords Of Vegas won me over, then it swayed Ian and eventually persuaded Joe, too.

But not before a quick game of Tichu. We split into pairs, Ian & me versus Joe & Katy. The I&A team sped off into an early lead, thanks to Ian completing a Tichu and then a 1-2. But with the score at 405 to - 5, the K&J team leaped into action. Joe completed a Grand Tichu and they did a 1-2 in the same round to make it 405-395. Then, in a further display of his mastery of the game, Joe completed another Tichu and another 1-2! Seven hundred points in two rounds. Astonishing.

Joe and Katy 695
Ian and Andrew 405

So, next up was Lords of Vegas. I secretly harboured thoughts of revenge over Joe, but instead we all got a thorough lesson in how to play the game. Joe began exceptionally. His first three dice soon each controlled two-tile casinos, which then proceeded to pay out.

The secret of his success was, when he built his first casino, he briefly mistook gold for brown. He had originally wanted brown, and was about to put the gold tile down when he decided that this was destiny, and he built a gold casino instead. It was only one of his many good decisions.

Meanwhile, the rest of us made do with 'pocket casinos', as we called little one-tile casinos dotted around the board. Ian tried a bit of psychological tactics. When Joe offered a good location to him, Ian said he'd buy it for $10 million but only if he bet $5 million in Joe's casino and won. Joe was stumped as he tried to work out how much he'd actually be paid for it.

As we played, Joe's kitchen oozed capitalism. During the game we made sure to always mention that we were dealing in millions, to heighten the sense of decadence and even our resident social conscious, Katy, found herself empathising with the mega-rich when she sighed "it's almost not good to have so much money."

This was because, as the game wore on, Katy's fortunes had turned from distant last to potential first and she'd been raking in the proceeds ever since. Taking over my three-tile casino by turning it into a four-tile casino when she drew a neighbouring location with a six on it was hard for me to take. I never got it back.

Joe played like a master throughout. His lead was never in doubt, despite Katy's plucky last minute attack. Joe's best move, in my opinion, was when he remodelled two of his neighbouring casinos into one big seven-tile casino. And he did this after he realised he didn't have enough money to do what he really wanted. God knows what that move would have been. Mind you, he then rerolled a six-tile casino hoping to get it from Katy but in the end Ian, with his single die, ended up as the boss, so it didn't all go Joe's way.

I struggled with getting control of anything until near the end when I remodelled my two-tile casino (with a six and a five) to the same colour as Ian's six-tile casino, netting myself a choice eight-tile casino on the strip. Alas it didn't pay out until game over. It couldn't get me out of last. Only enough to save me from total humiliation.

Joe 44
Katy 36
Ian 20
Andrew 18

Then we played Coup, a game that's been absent from GNN for far too long. We played three times and we won one each. Most people's strategy was to calmly insist they had a Duke while they picked up three coins. The games ended (in order of elimination)...

Andrew, tried to assassinate Joe who had a Contessa.
Katy, tried to assassinate Joe who had another Contessa.
Joe, tried to assassinate Ian who had the third Contessa!
Ian wins!

Andrew, wrongly challenged Ian's Duke.
Ian, wrongly challenged Katy's Ambassador.
Joe, tried to assassinate Katy who had the Contessa.
Katy wins!

Katy, tried to avoid assassination by saying she had a Contessa but she didn't.
Ian, killed by my coup.
Joe, killed by my coup.
Andrew wins!

We finished with No Thanks, which saw Joe return to his previous heights of skill after the random silliness of Coup.

Ian went for big cards, but not because he wanted to. Katy had a wide collection of disparate cards. I did okay with a couple of runs, but very little money at the end. Joe finished with one long run in front of him, as if he'd just played it in another successful game of Tichu.

Joe 5
Andrew 33
Katy 62
Ian 79

After this, it was a case of last visits to the toilet and then back out into the sub-zero night air with an extra layer of bonhomie to warm us on our way home. Big thanks to Joe for hosting and for showing us how winning should be done.

This is a LoW

Five players. Such a delicate number. Splitting into two and three is an option, but seems a bit mean when there’s a chance to play some five player games properly.

We were myself, Sam (hosting), Gonz, Ian and Matt. Joe and Martin couldn’t make it, with Martin preferring to watch the Brazil – Mexico match. Well, I hope he enjoyed his nil nil draw while we played games of skill and socialising.

We began with Coup as a nice short warm-up game of bluffing. Sam explained the rules to Ian and Matt and then got hit by Explainer’s Curse right away, after he was out almost immediately after two challenges. We slowly whittled players away until it was me and Gonz, and he had seven coins. This meant on my next go I could use a captain to take some money and postpone his coup.

Except I didn’t have a captain. In fact, I was sure that whatever I did to stop him, he would challenge and win. But if I didn’t, then he would trigger a coup and win. He won.

1. Gonz
2. Andrew
3. Matt
4. Ian
5. Sam

After this, we played Avalon, the medieval-themed Resistance. It’s identical, except for one rule: one of the players on the good side is Merlin. Merlin knows who the evil people are, but they don’t know who he is. If they fail in their mission, then the evil people have one chance left: if they can unveil who Merlin was. Merlin, of course, should be subtly guiding his colleagues to the right answer. We played happily, inventing scenarios for each quest (ie, killing a dragon) which quickly became more mundane (mending the castle wall).

Trouble was that I was Merlin, and I’d chugged my first two drinks, which left me a little confused. I saw who the spies were (Gonz and Matt) but during the game, I became so convinced that Ian was acting suspiciously that I wondered if maybe I’d misremembered. I started to cast doubt on Ian, until round four when me, Sam and Ian went on a mission together (a mission that I’d voted against!) and succeeded. After that, the solution was obvious. Plus, thanks to my insistence that Ian was a spy, no one guessed I was Merlin. Perfect.

1. Sam
1. Ian
1. Andrew
2. Gonz
2. Matt

Now for the main event of the evening: Lords of Waterdeep. It was chosen because everyone had played it, and it it works well with any number of players. Maybe Avalon put us in the mood for some questing.

I started quickly, picking up a few easy quests early on, but I was quickly pegged back. Gonz and Sam both started slowly, but Gonz had buildings bringing in a constant income. Sam had... well, not much.

It was a packed board, especially with the Ambassador in play. On one turn, Gonz couldn't use his final meeple in Waterdeep Harbour, since everywhere else was full. There were a few mandatory quests flying around the place. We did consider taking them out, but Gonz insisted they should stay in. In which case, it only seems right that he got the first. But as the game entered it’s final stages, Gonz began completing quests and pushing himself into a distant lead. It was a lot closer in the battle for second, with Ian’s bonus missions getting him the silver.

Gonz 128
Ian 108
Andrew 103
Matt 100
Sam 98

After this, I left. The others considered a short game to finish the evening, but when I saw it was Condottiere, I left. It’s not that I don’t like it but, despite the small box, it is not a small game. I later got an email from Sam telling me that Matt had won with three adjacent territories. Sam had passed in the final round, hoping that Gonz would beat Matt, and then leave Sam in a strong position with the cards left in his hand. But Matt won the battle, and ended the game.

Matt 3
Gonz 2
Sam 1
Ian 0

						Points
Gonz	2	1	2	1	1	7
Andrew	3	1	2	2	2	10
Martin	3	2	1	1	3	10
Matt	1	4	2	3	2	12
Ian	4	2	1	4	1	12
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16
Sam	3	5	1	5	3	17
Joe	4	3	4	4	2	17
Anja	2	5	5	5	5	22
Steve	4	5	5	5	5	24

Crashes in markets and in space

Joe’s place! Seven o’clock! Me, Sam and Joe were first there and, after some chat with Charlotte about holidays, the three of us decided on a game of Coup. “It’s leaderboard, right?” asked an eager Sam. His eagerness didn’t last as he was first out after a couple of rounds. In the end, I prevailed over Joe and was consequently appalled when Joe asked “That’s not leaderboard, though, is it?” It is.

1. Andrew
2. Joe
3. Sam

Then there was a very welcome return for an old regular: Quentin arrived, and Coup was given a second run out. Thus began Joe’s descent into a dark pit of gaming anguish. He came last, followed by Quentin, then Sam edged me out as I unsuccessfully challenged his final move.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Quentin
4. Joe

Next we discussed our next game. Since there were five of us, it was the perfect number to try Space Alert! from the makers of Galaxy Trucker. I was surprised that Adam agreed to another co-op game so soon after Pandemic but he did, so off we went!

Our glorious team... before the game started

We went through the rules, with Joe mercifully skipping over the amusing commentary between important bits, and then we launched ourselves into the tutorial game. We won admirably, with two turns to go, and were confident enough to go straight into the second mission.

Here we became a little undone. I, as communications officer, had put back the deck of enemy ships back the way they were. This meant that halfway through I had to replace the fleet of familiar ships bearing down on us with complete new and unknown enemy ships bearing down on us, and we didn’t have enough time to take in their special attack or defence powers.

Adam mashes the fire button (A).

And do you know why we didn’t have enough time? Because Captain Joe’s daughters needed to use the laptop, or wanted to know where the salt was. Meanwhile, without our good captain’s guidance, we didn’t know what to do. There seemed to be a lack of people able to use guns, and an awful lot of people able to use lifts. In the end, Sam only used three of his potential seven moves, while Quentin, Adam and I only placed cards until move five, leaving Captain Joe to fend off the enemies more or less by himself. We died.

After our failed mission, the disgruntled crew laid the blame at Captain Joe’s feet for not steering us to glory. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I like games which have a narrative, and Space Alert!, at the very least, tells an absurd story of space exploration where people just press buttons because they happen to be there at the time, or needlessly shoot lasers into the inky void of outer space. Sam, though, didn’t seem totally in love with it, and after this he went back home, feeling a little under the weather.

After this, with the evening progressing, we went for Hab & Gut. This was Quentin’s first attempt at the game, so Joe taught him the rules. Not entirely accurately because Joe started by saying that the cards needed to be shuffled but then told Quentin not to shuffle those cards he’d been shuffling for the past five minutes.

Quentin's shuffling skills... wasted!

At last, with shuffled cards shuffled and sorted cards sorted, we began. We bought, we manipulated. We sold, we manipulated again. At the end of the first round, Adam was in a distant last regarding donations, with barely £75 on the board. I was sitting pretty with £200, so I went into the second round with high hopes. Joe, meanwhile, decided to invest in coal, and drove the price down. Alas, he drove it down to zero – at which point no one can buy those shares. After this, no one touched coal, leaving Joe’s plans in tatters.

Finally, we counted up the scores before working out the donations. I was in first, with Adam, then Joe then Quentin. When we calculated the donations, Joe was appalled to find he was least devout player, and relegated to last. Quentin stole a creditable third on his first go, and Adam complimented me on my play. A high honour, indeed.

Andrew 830
Adam 775
Quentin 510
Joe OUT (but scored 670)

With two last places and a destroyed spaceship full of dead friends, this must have been one of Joe’s less successful gaming nights. It was a lot of fun though. Unfortunately, the Form Table doesn’t have a sense of humour...

I leap to the top. Hopefully, Quentin will be keen to send himself up the table and we'll see him again soon.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	1	3	1	8
Sam	1	3	1	3	4	12
Adam	2	4	4	2	1	13
Joe	4	4	2	2	2	14
Steve	3	3	3	4	3	16
Hannah	3	4	1	4	5	17
Anja	2	5	1	5	5	18
Miles	2	3	5	5	5	20
Quentin	3	3	5	5	5	21
Lizzy	2	5	5	5	5	22

And in the monthly division, I'm top too! Admittedly, I've played more than anyone, but dedication reaps it's own rewards. Hannah takes points ratio, and Sam is first on the medal table.

Oh, and one last thing before I go. I recently bought an X-box, because I had some old games I wanted to play. First thing I did was to rename all the computer-controlled characters in Conker: Live and Reloaded to something more familiar. See if you can find yourself...

No Mining in Cornwall

One week in Cornwall with Sally's family; several games.

Some context first: the Arthur Clan love nothing more than a good chat, a conversation that can last for several hours, or ideally days, is the key ingredient to a good holiday. Whereas I start to flag after the initial niceties are over and pine for something involving cubes, where I can passively sit back and disengage from the world. So it was with some optimism that I packed seven or eight games for the trip.

However there were reasons not to be pessimistic. My brother in law Matt likes games and indeed, keeps threatening to come along to a GNN night one day. He's a pastor and our ongoing game used to be him attempting to convert me to Christianity and I tempting him with atheism. But we gave up when we realised neither was budging and I couldn't understand the books Matt was lending me. Matt's kids Joel and Anna are 13 and 11 respectively and hence are candidates for a game.

We kicked off on Saturday with Lords of Waterdeep. At this stage Matt and Joel hadn't arrived (having appointments with both God and Cricket) so it was a two-hander between Anna and I. Anna picked it up very quickly and was soon delivering Orcs to Mooport to the manner born. I thought I had it in the bag but my lack of Lord-appropriate missions meant she caught me at the end, and we shared an unlikely 158-all draw.

On Monday Anna and I cajoled the others into playing The Resistance, a game that went down well with the Arthur Clan a couple of Christmases back, partly due to Sally's mum forgetting her own identity. This time the early-game orders for tea supplied the confusion, as Sally immediately gave herself away by returning a face-up mission card. We restarted and this time there was barely time for debate as the Resistance got off to a decent start. One sabotaged mission later and we guessed who the spies were, and successfully overthrew the government.

On Tuesday Anna wanted to play Lords of Waterdeep again and I obviously wasn't going to protest. This time Sally's sister Suzie joined us, along with Matt and Joel. Anna and I went through the rules and I caught a glimpse of the future, playing something like this with Stanley and Joe in eight years time, as Joel - treated to a glass of wine earlier in the evening -  found it impossible to concentrate and decided the game would be improved by playing snippets of music on his ipad very loudly and farting and blaming his sister. As Suzie tried to stem the flow of testosterone Matt remained a picture of paternal calm, taking his time over his turn and as such, earning the scorn of his family.

We ended on round seven and Matt's pondering had earned him a win. Joel was second - although his game was pretty much a joint effort - and I was third, followed by Anna and Suzie. Matt professed to be a fan, although he's so laid back about everything it's hard to glean exactly when he's genuinely excited and when he's merely being polite. And Joel despite his apparent boredom wanted to play it again the next day! Kids, eh?

Joel, Anna and I also played Coup (I won), Anna and I played two games of Biblios (one win each) and Stanley and I had a go at cards-face-up Trans America (Stan won). On the last night I was hoping to pin down Matt on a game of A Castle for all Seasons but after a day of body-boarding, beach cricketing, sun-burning and getting Joe to bed at 9.45ing I was too shattered to play anything.

And in-between all the above we played about 10 games of Cube Quest.

And I got a cricketing lesson from Matt and Joel - literally and figuratively. I can now hold a bat the correct way and swing wildly like a tail-ender.

A sandcastle

I focking love Dirk Henn

An unusually late start to a games night this week, as official leaderboard games didn't begin until 8.45 due to a late Joe. I arrived at Sam's at (a still relatively late) 8.15 and he and I filled in the time by giving Sam's newest purchase a try. Scripts and Scribes: The Dice Game is based on the game which eventually became GNN favourite Biblios. While there are similarities to Biblios, especially with the value of five dice affecting your final score, it lacks a certain something. It's not as pure as Biblios. It is like comparing Tsuro of the Seas to Tsuro. They're both good, but the simpler game somehow has something special about it. But we shall see. I don't recall being amazed by Biblios on its first try either.

Joe arrived, looked over the potential choices we'd placed on the table, and instantly plumped for Ra. We soon began and I thought I'd blown this in the first round, when I was already far behind when it came to monuments. Sam had a very strong round and looked good for the win right from the start.

Luck fell into my lap on the last round, however, when I managed to get a complete set of five civilisation tiles for fifteen points. Joe ended round three by pulling tiles from the bag, hoping for a jackpot, but instead found nothing but disasters and plagues.

Sam 60
Andrew 43
Joe 29

Joe rued his choice, saying that he usually won against the computer, but neither Sam nor I are computers as I think we proved this evening.

Next up came Alhambra. By now, Sam was ploughing through his high-alcohol ale and the whiskey was out so we started the game in bullish mood, setting up in the style of football hooligans who had, for some reason, given up an evening of attacking Chelsea fans in favour of Dirk Henn's finest. And this is where the title for the blog comes from.

Alhambra is a cruel mistress and it's not much kinder as a card game either. I constantly found myself out of sync with the cards and while Sam and Joe were picking stuff up for exact money, I was floundering. Changing our comedy voices from hooligans to Jewish mothers a la Seinfeld didn't help matters. Joe lead right from round one, and Sam looked like he might stage a late attack, it never appeared and my wall kept things respectable.

Joe 151
Sam 139
Andrew 133

By now we're really quite drunk, so there was no chance of going home without squeezing in another game before the day was done. Sam decided on a snack of pre-cooked pasta eaten out of a mug and after a little debate Coup was brought to the table as a nightcap.

Let me tell you that drunk Coup is a very different game. Decisions about bluffing that take nanoseconds when sober suddenly take about half a minute of baffled consideration, which is a bit of a giveaway. As such, in the first game, we were all quickly down to one card each before we knew it and it wasn't long until the game played itself out.

1. Andrew
2. Joe
3. Sam

The next two games were much that same: worst liar loses. Joe found that being the first one to lose a card attracted further attacks and he was out quickly both times. It turns out that Sam is Best Liar.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Joe

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Joe

And we stumbled away, into the night which somehow didn't seem as cold as it did before. Probably due to the excitement of playing five games in an evening, I expect, and nothing to do with the alcohol spinning round our systems.

Sam leaps up to the top of the form table, although how much he'll remember about how he got there is anyone's guess.

						Points
Sam	1	1	3	2	1	8
Steve	1	1	2	2	4	10
Andrew	2	2	1	3	2	10
Hannah	4	1	1	2	3	11
Anja	4	2	1	2	2	11
Joe	3	3	2	1	3	12
Adam	2	2	3	2	4	13
Will	1	1	2	5	5	14
Jon	3	5	1	5	5	19
Quentin	1	5	5	5	5	21

Hammer of the Peckhamites

Whilst a number of the other GNNers were cavorting down south on friday, my family and I headed east to London, to stay with our friends Henry and Rachel and their three girls in Peckham.
After catching up and eating and getting drunk no-one was in the mood to learn rules, so we opted for our four-player favourite, Lords of Vegas.

I sped in to the lead on account of my brown casinos paying out multiple times, but then found myself floundering as the others caught up and overtook me. It was a tense, taut game, and it ended as it so often does, with the feeling that one player had it sown up, but that a couple of extra rounds could have changed the landscape considerably. As it was Henry was the clear victor, and I think I was third or fourth.

On saturday, Henry was keen to sample the various new games I'd brought along, and we played three games of Battle for Hill 218 followed by Traders of Carthage. Hill 218 is a brilliantly clever and unique WW2 card game where you try and creep round the titular hill (titular hill?) to infiltrate your opponent's base whilst they do the same to you. There's no bluffing, just alternate playing of different types of troops, and Henry took to it in an instant, winning the first game. I can't remember who won after that, but then we tried out Traders, last played by Andrew and me at Stabcon in Jan. I like it a lot, though it feels slightly odd going from two-player direct confrontation to the more oblique passive-aggressive euro tactics, and as soon as we finished we broke out Hammer of the Scots.

This seminal block war game from Columbia Games sees Edward Longshanks attempting to quash the Scottish rebellion fronted by William Wallace - I was the english, Henry the scots.
We both needed a rules refresher, and it is brilliantly simple for a war game, though there were a fair few visits to the rule book throughout.
Despite a strong opening couple of rounds, by round four Wallace was dead, and Henry, unable to crown a scottish king or send in the french knights, was on the back foot. I had learned an important tactic since our first game last year, that the English infantry and knights raised each turn need to be brought up and used to soften the scots, since they return to England each winter. This realisation formed the backbone of my strategy, and the game was over within six or seven rounds, unlike the last game which went the distance. It is a real classic, this one, and I can't wait to play again.

Playing in the kitchen whilst overseeing cheese toasties for ten! Truly heroic.

It's all but over for the Scots now . . .

After a brief sojourn into the freezing rain, we set up Commands and Colours: Ancients. Henry and I played this once in Wales last year, but after that stuck to old favourite Manoeuvre. Having re-discovered its charms recently I was keen to have another go.
We played Tacinus River, the same scenario Adam and I played a fortnight or so ago, and this time it was a decided victory for me, winning both games 6-4 and 6-3. I think Henry enjoyed it, and suggested  he'd like to play a different scenario next time.
Matilda had been itching to play Coup all weekend, and so we then played four four-player games back to back - this is a real favourite with my girls, and Henry's eldest two really enjoyed it. Can't remember exactly who won, but I think it was a different person each time.

My sister and her partner joined us for a fabulous dinner, but despite Henry's best efforts, were too exhausted to play a game, so that was it for Saturday.

Sunday was fairly busy, but my two eldest had been introduced to Pandemic by Henry and Rachel's girls, and I think they played four times over the weekend. I'm thrilled about this, since I've been thinking it would be a good one to play with them myself, but selling the theme would be an uphill struggle. Now they know they like it I expect we will get to play soon!

Around lunch time, Henry and I managed to find time to play 7 player Incan Gold with the girls, followed by four games of The Resistance. The latter was a real hit - all four games went to the resistance, which I felt bucked the trend, though I might be wrong.

Henry and I then played a best of three return to Hill 218, and then, whilst dinner was cooking, tried out String Railways. Despite it's uniqueness this hasn't seen a lot of play, and this was only my second game. In the two player game each person takes two colours, the best single colour wins. It was fun, but the best bit remains the emergent 'artwork' you end up with . . .

I love the way you can discern each player's strategy from
the final 'board'.

A grand weekend, and lovely that our kids went off and played by themselves too, racking up the afore-mentioned Pandemic, plus Shadows in the Woods, Coup and (I think) Zombies, alongside the games they played with us. JB

We point at games we like

Thursday is the new Tuesday, say all the new fashion predictors and trend-setting guides. And Friday is the new day-before-yesterday. Or something.

Anyway, eight of us were at Steve and Anja's place. An unprecedented amount. Jon was able to join us and Hannah, too, made it. Of course, the more people there are, the more agonising is the debate over which game we should play. This time we struck upon the idea of all of us placing a finger on the two games we wanted to play, leading us into a Twister-esque situation which, in the seventies, would've seemed quite risqué.

In the end we split into three groups. Steve, Jon and I chose Snowdonia; Sam, Hannah and Anja went for Macao; and Joe and Adam went head to head on Commands and Colours: Ancients.

Steve and I expertly described the rules to Jon. In fact, we did so well that he was soon reminding us what they were. We built, we cleared, we bought trains. Mine broke down almost immediately, so a fat load of use that was. In the end, Steve fell just one track short of a handsome bonus and Jon won on his maiden voyage.

Jon 84
Steve 78
Andrew 69

Scipio and Hannibal were engaged in a two-leg battle. Although the game is set up in favour of Hannibal, Joe explained to me afterwards that the dice rolls had been such that Scipio had defied history and won both times: Once with Joe in charge, 6-2 and then again with Adam at the helm, 6-0, giving Adam an overall win.

Adam 8
Joe 6

Over in the lounge area, Sam, Hannah and Anja were locked in battle. "Locked" being the operative word, since apparently they all found it hard to build at first and start those bonuses rolling. I looked in on them at around the halfway mark, and Sam was in the lead, but only just. At the final count, Anja won a close game thanks to being furthest along the wall.

Anja 60 (+wall)
Sam 60
Hannah 55

As Macao ended, The five of us at the big table decided to play Coup! The hilarious game of lies and murder. It was Jon's first go at this game, but he must've used up all his beginner's luck on Snowdonia, since he was out first. Joe impressed everyone when he correctly challenged Adam, and then correctly identified the card that Adam really had. A masterful win.

1. Joe
2. Steve
3. Andrew
4. Adam
5. Jon

Finally, there was still time for one more game. Five of us chose Coup! again, and three went for Biblios. In Coup! the husband and wife team came first and second, while in Biblios Jon found himself outbid on the only two colours he was going for.

Coup
1. Steve
2. Anja
3. Joe
4. Sam
5. Andrew

Biblios
Adam 9
Hannah 7
Jon 0

And so the statistics. I take a big hit on the form table, but Anja rises to the top with Joe in close contention.

						Points
Anja	2	1	2	2	3	10
Joe	3	1	2	4	1	11
Adam	1	4	1	3	4	13
Steve	1	2	2	4	6	15
Sam	4	2	1	2	6	15
Andrew	5	3	3	2	3	16
Jon	3	5	1	5	5	19
Hannah	2	3	5	5	5	20

It's the end of the month, so let's take a look at The Division. Apart from this evening, my good form has put me in first in terms of points won. Anja has the best points ratio, and Bracknell regular James takes the medal table. Meanwhile, Chris impresses with his consistency.

On the two-player table, it's almost a complete whitewash by Chris. First in points and points ratio and sharing the medal table with Adam.

Batteries recharged

After the deflating experience of Stabcon, we convened at Joe's for the regular games night. At first it was the core four, me, Adam, Joe and Sam. Despite feeling jaded after the convention, we discovered that each of us had played board games in the time since we'd last met. Perhaps there's still life in this hobby yet.

While we waited for Steve and Anja to arrive we decided to play a game that Anja would never agree to if she was here: 6nimmt. This simple game of card placement has a winning strategy just as enigmatic as Biblios, but is funnier. We ended the game after the round when our two companions arrived, all rosy-cheeked and fresh from the winter air.

The most confusing cards on 6nimmt

Adam 42
Joe 48
Andrew 55
Sam 60

The sad news is that this is the last Tuesday for Steve and Anja, since pre-natal classes start next week. We all hope they'll be able to make the extra-curricular games nights that will crop up now and again.

We split into two groups: a game of four and a game of two (now that I've devised a two-player leaderboard, more of which later). Adam and Joe played two games of Aton while Sam, Anja, Steve and I played Downfall of Pompeii: The game of populating a doomed city and laughing at everyone's untimely demise. Sam explained the rules to Anja and Steve.

During this game, disaster struck. Not the volcano, a proper disaster. I knocked over my bottle of Bishop's Finger, and although the spillage wasn't great, there was a minute or so of holding the board gingerly off the table so the meeples didn't slip while some quick mopping was done. And on Joe's lovely green baize, too.

It's not a game for people who hold grudges, and sitting next to Anja, I was acutely aware of her barely disguised snorts of disgust whenever I chose one of her meeples to put in the volcano. However, it was Sam who was most picked on, and he came out the worst in the final count, with least escapees and most of his relatives in Vesuvius.

Steve 10
Andrew 9
Anja 8
Sam 6

During this time, Adam and Joe had played Aton twice. In the first game Adam won an "absolute victory", while Joe pipped Adam in the rematch.

Adam wins!
Joe didn't

Joe 42
Adam 35

Finally, with Stave and Anja's time on the car club running out, we decided on a quick game of Coup. This, too, was new to Anja and Steve but they seemed to catch on soon enough. Well, at least Anja did. We played one game, during which Steve extended their time with the club car. That makes me feel a little bad about being the one to kill him off first... but not that bad.

1. Sam
2. Anja
3. Adam
4. Andrew
5. Joe
6. Steve

Oh Captain, my Captain!

Then, since Steve had extended the time on the club car, they decided they had enough time for one more game of Coup. Unfortunately, since Anja was doing so well, they had to extend again. If there was a category on the leaderboard for most money spent during a game, I'm sure Steve and Anja would be top.

However, Anja was not to be victorious. I'm not one to boast, but I'm quite proud of the way I played a hand which would usually be considered the weakest: Two Contessas (who do nothing except stop assassinations). After the first (and only other) Contessa was revealed early on, I started to act as if I had an assassin. Since I knew they couldn't possibly have a Contessa, I felt confident and that confidence made a difference. As long as I made sure no one got enough money, I could assassinate with impunity and I ran out quite a comfortable winner.

1. Andrew
2. Anja
3. Joe
4. Steve
5. Adam
6. Sam

So the evening ended with our faith in board games reaffirmed. Sam takes a tumble on the Form Table, and Steve's season is still to get started.

						Points
Andrew	1	4	2	3	1	11
Adam	5	3	2	1	1	12
Joe	3	5	1	2	2	13
Anja	2	2	3	2	5	14
Sam	6	1	4	4	3	18
Steve	4	6	1	5	5	21

Meanwhile, there's the business of a two-player form table to sort out. It's always been a bother that the good people of Bracknell have not been able to pit their wits against ours, but now I've gone some of the way to put that right. The two-player system uses the same system as The Division, but it needs a third player to make it work. If the game is new, then an average score from the first session report that I find on Board Game Geek is used as a dummy player. If it's been played before then the previous scores of the player(s) act as a third (or even fourth) dummy player. So, make sure you improve on your last performance or else you may up with less than bronze in a two-player game!

This is how it stands to date...

With the most recent report from Bracknell being a three-player session, maybe those can be added onto the The Division as normal.

Viva la revolution(s)!

Christmas is a time of cheer and, if last night was anything to go by, also a time of intrigue, subterfuge and conspiracy. Six of us arrived at Sam's festively decorated kitchen for a special games night, complete with mince pies and a quiz. A quiz!

As I arrived, Quentin was setting up Eclipse. I assumed that an executive decision had been made, and that this would be tonight's main event. But others began to have doubts about the amount of time you'd need for six newbies to play it through. Also, when would we get to do the quiz? In the end, it was put away in favour of two three-players games. Something simpler that we're all familiar with. That was the plan, at least.

We began with a six-player game of Coup, which Joe had been name-dropping since his arrival. This is a simple game of bluff, as each player had two hidden cards and can make moves according to those cards. But, of course, you can pretend you have a different card and do something else. Someone then has to challenge you, and that's where the fun begins!

I had two pretty useless cards, and then I lost the slightly less useless one, leaving me with the Contessa. I just sat there, hoping someone would assassinate me so I could change my card. But the other players were more concerned with each other. Sam tried to assassinate people, but they insisted they had the Contessa and his assassin backed out, apologising and saying he must have the wrong house.

In the end, it was me (with six coins) and Quentin (with less than six). Quentin had no choice but to assassinate me. Thank God I still had the Contessa.

1. Andrew
2. Quentin
3. Joe
4. Sam
5. Adam
6. Hannah

Then there was the quiz! Sam put together some questions to see if we'd been paying attention during the past year or so. It was Joe "The Knowledge" and Quentin versus me, Adam and Hannah. We couldn't match Joe for the "Match the designer to the game" section, but we snuck past in our knowledge of GNN related trivia.

Adam, Hannah, Andrew 26
Joe, Quentin 25

Then we split into two factions. Hannah, Quentin and Sam played Lords of Waterdeep and me, Adam and Joe played Pax Porfiriana. It's a game by Phil Eklund, the same man who brought us the joys of High Frontier, and by all accounts he'd brought the same level of obsessive detail we saw before to revolutionary Mexico.

It was a bit of a hard slog, and not terribly intuitive at first (or even second) glance. The cards are packed with text, some of which has nothing to do with the game. Plus, it's very combatitive. Almost every card effects an opponent, but that may give them an Outrage point and actually do them some good. There are four different ways to win, and I wasn't sure how to achieve any of them. I was especially baffled when Joe said it was okay to attack yourself. I looked jealously across the table at the other group placating statues and raiding undermountains, while we were dealing with Mormon Lumber and the Democratic Chinese Exclusion Bill.

While I was impressed with the depth and how much game there is in the small box, there's no clear route to success. The best way to win is to try to topple the regime and hope everyone is too tired to put up a fight, which is how Adam won.

1. Adam
2. Joe & Andrew

Sam, however, may have less rosy memories of his time in Waterdeep. As I glanced over jealously, I couldn't help but notice that the three score tokens seemed to be quite some distance apart, with Quentin apparently languishing with barely ten points to his name. However, I soon learnt that he'd already been round the score track once and it was Sam who hadn't really got started. Hannah made a late dash for victory, but not enough to take first.

Quentin 166
Hannah 154
Sam 98

But a wounded Sam is an angry Sam (or, at least, slightly peeved), and he brought out his gaming muse, Biblios to play while we three struggled with "U.S. surplusing", whatever that is. It didn't let him down and pride was restored.

Sam 7
Hannah 6
Quentin 4

We ended with a couple of games of The Resistance. However, having just spread intrigue in Italy and tried to overthrow the government in Mexico, I was in no mood to zip into the future and do the same all over again. To my dismay, I was a spy both times. My tactic was to try and stay awake and hope that somehow the others would incriminate themselves. No such luck.

Game one:
Win to the resistance! Sam, Joe, Quentin, Adam
Spies: Andrew, Hannah

Game two:
Win to the resistance! Sam, Hannah, Quentin, Adam
Spies: Andrew, Joe

But that's life! Sometimes the good guys win after all. But for me, the major event of the evening was the look of horror and joy on our faces when we realised it's just one week until Stabcon 2013!

Next stop Stockport!! Woo hoo!!

From Cornwall to Cape Town

Tonight was a chance for Joe to catch up after his non-attendance at Tuesday's meet. Me and he met at Sam's for a little extra-time games night. After a minimal amount of discussion, we found ourselves in a mood for Tinners' Trail. Speaking for myself, after City Of Horror and Wallenstein, I was keen for a game which I knew and which didn't require any bargaining with your opponents at all.

Joe focused most of his resources on two mines, while Sam fretted over having one less mine than the rest of us. I went for the Adam-esque tactic of not scoring in a round in order to build up my reserves for a big push next round. Unfortunately the push wasn't big enough, as all of us were stymied by a stubbornly low price on copper, and a lack of tin in our somewhat soggy mines.

But the high point was when Joe had to roll for tin and copper prices. He casually leaned over to his bag and pulled out his esteemed dice arena. He used it to roll the three dice and then put it back, and we never saw it again. A cameo to rank amongst the best, I think

The Dice Arena in action

Joe 100
Sam 96
Andrew 93

After this was a new game! Coup. This may be a French word, but the game is set in Italy. Except it's not really, since it's a simple game of bluff and has no real sense of anything Italian. Each player has two cards and is allowed to take actions according to whatever cards they have. But those cards are hidden, allowing a player to take an action of a particular card that they don't have. If someone suspects them, they can challenge them. The loser of the challenge loses one of their two cards. The winner is last man with a card.

We played three games, and somehow managed to share the honours evenly.

1. Sam, Andrew, Joe
2. Andrew, Joe, Sam
3. Joe, Sam, Andrew

The night was still young (before 10) and Sam was eyeing the whiskey on the shelf. Another game was brought to the table along with the shot glasses: Africana.

Imagine The Cannonball Run set across the great continent of Africa except instead of racing from A to B, it's more like doing laps as we sped north then south then back in our search for adventures and new discoveries. I started badly, finding my adventures completed by other people before I got to the end, so I got an extra joker, and a bunch of discoveries and that really helped. Sam's early good form petered out towards then end, so by the end I really had no idea who had won.

A shadow falls across Africa...

When it came to counting up, it was very close with me and Sam tying for first, except that I thought we'd counted one category twice. I demanded a recount, and with good reason, as I squeaked into first with my last minute dash to Casablanca to get a necklace to go with my bongos giving me a set of discoveries that scored enough points to give me the win.

Andrew 40
Sam 39
Joe 37

We managed to squeeze five leaderboard games into one crazy evening. And, amazingly, we all came away with the same score on the form table. I scramble into third on the "best most recent score" rule, but it's tight at the top. Now, if we could just convince Steve to play five games in an evening...

						Points
Steve	2	1	1	1	2	7
Anja	1	2	3	3	1	10
Andrew	1	3	1	2	3	10
Sam	2	2	3	1	2	10
Joe	3	1	2	3	1	10
Adam	3	4	1	2	3	13
Hannah	1	1	5	5	5	17
Paul	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jon	3	5	5	5	5	23
Chris	6	2	5	5	5	23