Are We Young?

Steve, Anja, Louie and Lennon were our hosts last night so after a day of more rain Martin and I (car) and Adam (bicycle) made our way to Mayfield Park to join them, along with new arrival Pete, whom Martin and Joe had met at the Bath Kniziathon. After some crumble, Anja escorted Lennon off to bed and we debated how to start the evening, eventually settling on Courtisans (Martin, Adam and Pete) and Spots (myself, Steve and Louie). 

Pete was new to Courtisans and Louie hadn't played Spots before, so there was a bit of rules explaining going on before we tucked into our openers. I didn't keep up with the drama in court, although Louie pithily remarking that just sitting next to it gave him a headache was commentary enough. It does a look more mad than it actually is though. 

In Spots Louie and Steve were first to 'bank' dogs as I trailed behind, before lurching to an unexpected and frankly jammy win just as Louie looked poised to wrap up a debut victory. In contrast Pete was emerging the winner on his first play of Courtisans.

Pete 8
Martin 7
Adam 6

Both games ended at the exact same moment and Anja reappeared to take bed-bound Louie's place. We shuffled seats, with Anja and Adam intro-ing Pete to Cascadero whilst I talked Steve and Martin through the rules of Foundations of Metropolis.  

Here, we're building a city on a shared board in a game where you take one of three actions on each turn. You can purchase a deed in the city, take income from the bank, or build on areas where you own the deeds. The building's the thing, as certain buildings up your income, others push up your population (points) and civic buildings will score points depending on what other buildings they're next to. 

The population of each player has a quirky methodology - on a separate track to the points track everyone scores the position of the next player ahead of them. Whoever's in first place scores their own position plus a bonus, which escalates over each round of the game. This meant that as Steve and Martin fought it out over the population majority, I sat back on a single population point knowing that I'd score (kind of) second place - and focused my energies on getting as many civic buildings out as I could. 

Steve is appalled. Can't remember why

It's got a nice brisk pace to it and both the parasitic leaching of the civic buildings and the more aggro claiming of deeds, especially if you know someone else wants them. Having played a few times already my experience helped me out, but both Martin and I were confident he'd beat me next time.

Sam 118
Martin 93
Steve 82

On the Cascadero board meantime Anja was having the kind of experience that I have serially undergone at the hands of Martin, as Adam chained all manner of bonus bonanzas together and he and Pete pulled away up the track. We played Klink, which Steve announced he would be terrible at, but it transpired that the fates had it in for Martin on this occasion. At the climax of the game he listed the numerous numbers he could flip that would all help him in some way. None was a ten, which is what he turned over.

The player with the least points wins when someone reaches 77...

Sam 33
Steve 44
Martin 101

And Cascadero finished with Adam taking the insta-win by sailing past 50 points. Debutant Pete was back on 37 and Anja laughing in deranged disbelief on 22. I felt her agony. Brilliant game. Painful game. Martin was flabbergasted at the envoys having zero decorum, with most of the horses on their noses. 

The clock was ticking so we quickly bashed out So Clover - yet another new set of rules for Pete, who showed remarkable equanimity to be taking on instructions at 10.30 with a return drive to Bradford on Avon looming. During the mulling period he pondered aloud about using the same clue twice, and we all chortled at the very idea. But then he did it, putting 'Light' on two sides of his clover. Whatever the collective noun for synonym spotters/confirmation-bias victims is, we became it as we found 'Light' seemed to go with everything - even, at one stage, Pumpkin (my suggestion). To be fair though we only got one card wrong and that was because of Pumpkin. "Who suggested that?" Adam cried, not unreasonably. It did now seem rather ludicrous, although was it as silly as Cinderella taking an Uber to the ball?

Other highlights were Anja's slaw for salad/religion and Martin's overactive for coffee/rabbit. We only came a real cropper on Steve's clue of Licken, where we missed his sound logic in favour of combos such as 'Tunnel Hen'. Overall though, a solid enough 31/36 to round off the night, after Anja explained her clue of 'bass' related to drum and bass - what young people listen to. 
"Young people in the 90s" Steve added, before Adam mournfully voiced the blog title aloud, almost to himself.

A fun night, thanks everyone. Sorry about the pumpkin. 

Thumbs Up

Last night's games began early as Adam T and I played a couple of head to head games as we waited for 7.30 to arrive. Adam had Hey That's My Fish in his bag, and so we began with that. 

Neither of us had played in a while, and we both remarked on how feisty the game is v it's cute and cuddly appearance. I played numerous dick moves, hampering his penguin movements, and kicked off the evening with a win:

Sam 59
Adam 36

Then we played Match of the Century, a chess game that isn't chess, but kind of channeling it in a Spassky v Fischer match-up, recreating the epic battle of 1972. This is essentially a lane battler where playing the higher value gets you the advantage, and a secured majority in advantage wins you the round. The catch is that whomever loses a particular lane activates the special power on their card, gathering pawns (power boosts!) more cards (more cards) mental strength (potentially both more cards and pawns) or occasionally - Adam made use of this a fair bit - negating any advantage to the winner. 

We were neck and neck when Martin knocked on the door, so called it an honourable draw. Ian and Joe followed in short order, and we had half-hour or so until Katy arrived, so began the official GNNing with Courtisans - new to Ian. 

This has been explained elsewhere already, but is essentially Biblios crossed with set-scoring crossed with extra dick. I thought Ian's relentless palming off of white cards onto me was going to put me in last, but I managed to negate the minus 7 points with my last turn, and that was enough for a win:

Sam 13

Adam 8

Joe 7

Martin and Ian 5 each

We followed that with Cabanga - new to Adam. This was the opposite experience from the last time I'd played - there was so little Cabanga-ing then the game felt a bit procedural. Now we couldn't stop shouting cabanga! and at one point Joe was cabanga-ed an entire new hand of six cards. Bad luck Joe!

I snagged another win. Not sure how really. 

Sam 1
Martin 5
Adam 8
Ian 9
Joe 15

Katy had arrived for the finale and now we split into two teams to play Turbo Kidz - new to everyone. 

This is a racing game where the driver is blindfold, and their teammates must guide them around the track, which is a laminated board. The car is represented by a marker, and the racing line the progress it makes as the team-mates 'steer' them by a. using the driver's non-dominant thumb as a steering wheel and b. yelling (sorry - I got excited) directions at the same time. If the 'car' crosses a white line at any point, that's considered a crash, and the driver is returned to the previous checkpoint. 

It's quite a surreal experience as the driver - losing sense of scale as well as direction - and also the thumbing co-pilot, as your movements get interpreted in semi-mysterious ways. A pretty bonkers experience all around.

First to two race victories wins the game, and the Joe/Ian/Sam team thought we'd won it, but there was a steward's enquiry regarding a white line, forcing a decider - and we lost!

Katy/Adam/Martin - Podium!

Joe/Ian/Sam - Odium

Then, after the usual shenanigans, we split into threes. Joe Katy and Ian set up Sunrise Lane, whilst Adam, Martin and I went to the haunted house in Spectral.

I'd found this game bamboozling on my first visit, with its cards-referencing-other-cards geography and deduction-with-area-control approach to gameplay. This time, it was Adam's turn to be bamboozled - although to be fair, with more decorum than I managed - as we diligently made our notes. Both Martin and Adam said they didn't really have a system down yet. Joe won Sunrise Lane and they began playing The Gang as we reached our finale...

Adam was undone by ghosts and Martin surprised by the lack of gems where he had investigators. 

Sam 57

Martin 45

Adam 36

Adam confessed he was watching our moves to see what we were getting up to, and both Martin and I said that was next-level Spectraling. "Well, it didn't work" Adam pointed out. We did some seat-swapping as Katy, Adam and Joe set up Mille Fiori and I suggested Cascadero, a proposal I would come to regret. 

We played the roving Heralds variant: only two of the heralds on the board, but whenever one is scored the active player can choose to move it to a neighbouring town. This apparently simple tweak was enough to send me into cognitive meltdown, and I sulked my way through "all of" (Martin) or "the middle twenty minutes" (me) of the game, as everything I did seemed to resonate with pathetic ineffectiveness. Happily, the other end of the table were making up for it, with Katy at one point complaining about "Cocks in my furrow!" in a loud voice. 

I attempted to rally, like a deranged patient briefly experiencing lucidity, but my grand plan to come less-feebly-third was kiboshed by Martin passing 50 points and ending the game instantly. "Cascadero is kind of like Mille Fiori crossed with a staple gun" Joe sympathised, adding "in the eye" for clarity. 

Martin 55

Ian 37

Sam 25 and DNF

At the same time, Katy wrapped up a win in Mille Fiori. It was close, though:

Katy 209

Joe 199

Adam 184

It was time for So Clover! We played twice, first as a sextet. I don't actually remember much about the first attempt apart from the seemingly endless ways the words went with my clue of priapism, although most of them everyone agreed would have made me write 'wank' instead. "Wank goes with everything" said Ian at one point, like he was seeing the matrix for the first time. 

We scored a decent 30/36 but lost Adam to hometime. Katy insisted the five of us play again, so we did. After Katy blamed herself for not getting a six on Ian's clover, she began rooting for us to score badly, but we actually did rather well again. Katy's clue of Bellend for dirty/hood was a highlight. Or lowlight. Either way, it was an excellent but imperfect 28/30 to round off an action-packed night of no less than eleven games! 

Happily Ever Rafter

 In the same way that Sirens drew sailors to their doom on rocky shores in past centuries, so the promise of board games drew us to Sam’s house. Not to our doom, but to jovial banter and salty nibbles.

I arrived at a little before 8 to find Sam, Ian, Martin, Adam H and Joe halfway through a game of The Gang, a cooperative version of Poker. It was the third hand and I noticed that Joe rearranged the cards in the flop in numerical order, like they were playing For Sale. Ian bet low, believing he only had Card High, and had to be told he had a Straight when he revealed his hand. He admitted he still didn’t understand poker and, indeed, at a rare poker night just this past weekend Ian was out first. I was dealt into the last two hands, but extra players only make it more difficult and we ended with two more failed attempts.

The gang's all here

2 successes, 3 failures.

Then we split into two groups of three, choosing games that would easily accommodate four since Katy was on her way.

Adam, Ian and Martin set up Cascadero. I didn’t follow it much, apart from someone saying it was Ian’s “first time with the farmers” which raised some smutty laughter.

Adam 39

Ian 37

Martin OUT (but scored 38)

Meanwhile, Sam, Joe, me and (latterly) Katy played Expiditions. I saw it only from a distance the other week and today was my first play. It involves placing arrows along one of three routes (red, blue or yellow) such that they arrive at secret locations that you have in your hand or are on display as one of the shared locations. It’s simple, but cunning. Use a ticket for an extra action, reach a blue square for another turn and reach a red square for a new ticket. And since this is a Eurogame, all routes begin in Essen, Germany.

Meanwhile, we’re all travelling to these distant locations. Sad to say, I hadn’t actually been to any of them. Not even Stonehenge, although I've seen it from a car window. Each location card has a little text to explain the site's charms. I was curious about Graham Land in the far south, due to its dull name (unless you happen to be called Graham, I suppose).

Sam seemed very adept at chaining blue squares and red stars together to propel himself around the world, ticking off his locations as he went. Joe pondered his next move in an Australian accent which I thought might be a possible tell. Katy surprised us all by asking “Where’s the Sahara?” when its card was drawn from the deck. Near the end, the winner was pretty clear. Joe took several attempts to count up his score and Katy seemed disappointed that she hadn’t enjoyed it as much this time.

Sam 15

Joe 9

Andrew 5

Katy 4

Katy demanded something fun this time, so we played Rafter 5, the game of dexterity and balance in a tiny box. As the planks slowly increase in number, our options become more and more absurd. 

Katy fumbled one of her turns but somehow managed to drop her chest onto the plank she’d just placed, so it was a valid move. I had less luck. I picked up one of the rafters deftly, causing murmurs of approval for my skill, but then I nudged a treasure chest with my plank and the whole thing collapsed.

Andrew lost

Then the groups shifted again. Joe, Martin and Katy played Seaside. You pull beach-themed tiles from a bag and make jokes about getting crabs. At the end of the first game, they just stacked up their tiles and I took a photo in lieu of a numerical result.

Joe on the right, Martin on the left, Katy hidden behind them both

The second game was even closer, and so they relied on numbers.

Joe 19

Katy 19

Martin 17

Then they played Sunrise Lane. I didn’t get the scores, but Martin won with Joe “squeaking second by a point.”

Then they played another game. This one had large cards and a pretty fabric play area thing. It was called Courtisans but I don’t know the scores, because I dashed out before they’d finished.

The reason for my sharp exit was a game of Empire’s End. This is a game of disaster avoidance using a No Thanks style mechanic of bidding to not pick up tiles. You begin with 11 parts of a gleaming civilization and will almost certainly be left with half of it in ashes and ruins. Try to protect the most valuable or take the disaster that will hopefully have enough resources on it to make it worthwhile.

It was fun but a little bit long. Including rules, it took about an hour and a half. As a four-player, with a couple of newbies, it was a little longer than I’d wanted. Ian went big on military but Adam hoarded wheat for two end of game bonuses along with, I think, another one or two bonuses that pushed him from last into a healthy first.

Shiny fire

Adam 179

Sam 153

Andrew 144

Ian 127

After I left, Martin, Ian and Sam played a three-player So Clover, getting a perfect 18 out of 18.

And after Ian left, Sam beat Martin 2-1 at Schipp & Weg

Thanks all. It was special!

One Disaster after Another

Just the four of us last night as GNN continues its sparsely-populated run. Adam T arrived early and after a brief catch-up and exchange of grief-stricken lamentations that our Root group has gone into a hiatus, we consoled ourselves by playing his recent acquisition, which is Knarr, the game of Viking crewing, sailing, and combo-ing. 

The rhythm of the game is nice and easy: you're either playing a card into your crew(s) and activating all the bonuses at the top, or you are cashing them in/sailing them to far-flung climes to grab destination cards for points/other bonuses. Helmets can be spent as wild cards and bracelets - I think they're bracelets - can activate the columns in your destination cards. 

It's the kind of game where it's easy to learn but also easy, I found, to discover while you're farting about in the late teens of the score track, Adam has combo-ed his way to an imminent win. My last turn salvaged a small degree of pride...

Adam 42ish

Sam 30ish

We still had a good half hour or so before the arrival of Adam H and Martin, so cracked out a play of Empire's End. This uses the bidding system of No Thanks but instead of trying to chain numbers, you're trying to protect your civilisation from decay: most rounds are simply a disaster that will befall someone and cause them to flip over part of their tableau, and in doing so, lose all the points for it. I forgot to take any pictures, so gripped was I by the drama and panic, but here's Joe and I playing it a few days ago.

When you concede and take the disaster, you do at least get all the stuff everyone bid not to take it, and you get to append your tableau with an innovation, which - while the location it sits under remains undisastered - offers some kind of mechanical consolation for the loss of your farm/road/army/town/city. 

Disaster!

Interspersed between the almost relentless downers are economy (get stuff) industry (fix stuff) and military (fight stuff) rounds, the latter containing an element of risk as we both fight the same threat, but whoever contributes the most gets an extra reward. In one of the industry rounds I spent big to fix my (most valuable) city, only to have the next disaster hit it, and I had no resources to palm it off on Adam. He took a convincing win, something 150 to 105. 

But it was now time for Cascadero!

Whilst I went off to corral two teenagers upstairs Martin explained the rules to newbie Adam H. Then off we went, with Adam T immediately pursuing a strategy of building a 'big snake' network, as the rest of us took a more geographically diverse approach. I built an early lead, but was (correctly) assuming it wouldn't last. But as our envoys multiplied across the board, I did make significant progress up the tracks - particularly blue, which wasn't even my colour. It was Martin's. "What the fuck are you doing on my track!" he said, once or twice. Maybe more. 

Adam H initially seemed slightly bamboozled, and we did offer mild assistance once or twice. Or maybe moderate assistance, when I pointed out to him he could claim the first-to-x-spaces reward. "I was about to do that!" Martin cried. Sorry Martin. 

Adam T was openly regretting his network strategy as he dawdled some way behind us on the score track, and found his plans to get the ten point all-links bonus held up by our chicanery. However as the game entered its final stages he did belatedly bound up beside the three of us, who were inching forward in increments now. When Martin pointed out Adam H only had a spinrkling envoys left, I realised that to reach the top of my track I needed to move away from orange cities in order to visit them again, and didn't have enough turns left. Martin thought he was in with a shout but made a shocking Sam-style error, shooting himself in the foot with drastic mistake. As a result, he didn't reach the top of his track either. And nor did Adam T.

Adam H 38

Martin 38 but DNF

Sam 36 but DNF

Adam T 34 but DNF

Disaster again!

Adam H professed himself to be pleased with a debut win and liked the game. It was, as Martin said, brutal with four - if you don't reach the top of your track early enough, it becomes nigh on impossible to do so later. But we all enjoyed ourselves - even Adam T, I think. 

Martin then waved Courtisans around, his UKBG EXPO purchase, and he seemed excited enough that we agreed to play it.  It was better than this picture makes it look. 

Each turn you've a hand of three courtisans and must choose, Biblios-style, one to keep, one to gift, and one to play to the middle of the table. When the deck is empty everyone will score their kept cards, and the cards in the middle determine whether you'll get points for them (more cards above the board) or lose (more cards below). Mix in some dickish shenanigans and you've a very Martin-style game: assassins kill someone at their location when they arrive, royals are worth two, spies are played face-down and knights (I think? they have a shield) can't be killed by assassins. 

Everyone has two secret objectives as well, such as making sure the green suit falls from grace - ie scores negative - or that you have less cards or the red suit than your neighbour. These were mine, anyway, and I succeeded at one of them. I think we all managed one, in fact, but Martin's tableau of dicks scored more than everyone else's:

Martin 10

Everyone else 8

Fun, and quite speedy too - we raced through a thick deck of cards in about 25 minutes. However with Adam T making going-home noises and Adam H yawning wearily - Cascadero does take it out of you - we quickly moved on to So Clover. This was my 200th play and we hoped to mark it with an entry in the record of legends or whatever it's called. I think we've done a few perfect rounds with my copy before, but I've never recorded them - it was nice that we hit a home run of 24/24 this evening, with some nice clues guiding us there: Landfill for Garbage/Forest and C for Moon/Letter.

Adam T left us on this llinguistical high, and as a trio we played Misfits. Martin dicked us all over with a horrible opening move of the gaping-maw-triangle, but on reflection Adam H did not help the situation by putting a bloody cylinder in it. Every time Martin's turn arrived it collapsed again, until he was practically hidden by a mound of misshapen wooden bits, while his opening piece remained there, stoically being a pain in the arse.

I fell foul of it too, more than once, as Adam deftly shed his trickier pieces to finally, and triumphantly, dump his last cube. No fantastical structures tonight, but a funny, slapstick, and disastrous experience. Keeping with the mechanics of dickery, we moved on to Little Tavern. The less said about this the better as my early lead after round one made me a serial target in round two. 

Martin recovered from being back in third to sneak by Adam for a win:

Martin 26

Adam 25

Sam 22

And then Adam was gone too, his bedtime calling him. Martin and I finished off as a pair with Schnipp & Weg, which I am really surprised has never featured in GNN before! 

This is a head-to-head flicking game (lazy susan courtesy of Joe B) where you each begin at the far end of a hourglass-shaped board and the goal is to flick all your opponent's pieces off it. If you succeed with one flick (without your own pieces falling off) you keep going, and if you win the round you lose a piece but shuffle forward a row towards the middle - first player to the middle wins. 

The canny thing about Schnipp & Weg is that whoever lost a round starts the next one, which is - as long as you don't get the yips - a huge advantage. And whoever is closer to the middle is, in one way, weaker, as they have less presence on the board. We did a best of three, which Martin won 2-1 after I rallied from a poor start. A night of consecutive losses for me, So Clover notwithstanding, but a very fun one all the same. See you next week!