Into it. Clover it.

I arrived at Sam’s and Katy answered the door, having only just arrived herself. In the kitchen, Sam, Martin and Ian were playing Whale Riders which is currently my most-watched, not-played game of the year. Still don’t know what’s going on but Sam went from “I’m feeling confident” to “I might be third” in the space of one round.

Ian 24

Sam 23

Martin 21

Then Laura arrived and, after the table was dragged from the wall to make more room, the six of us played So Clover – Laura’s introduction to the game. It was a mixed bag: Martin and Sam gave clues that netted six points, Katy and Laura got four points each with their clovers while Ian and I, last to finish writing our clues, only got three points each. My clue of “Casino” for “Luck” and “Patio” wasn’t a huge success.

26 out of 36

Next we split into two groups of three. Martin, Katy and Laura played Biblios while Sam, Ian and I once again crashed on an inhospitable alien planet in Cryo. Katy remarked that, after she’d played it, the game had given her nightmares, or at least some sort of fever dream in which she was playing it. A tleast, I think that’s what she meant: the mime she did to describe it involved plucking things out of the air. Also, she thinks she may have cheated the last time she played, but I don’t think anyone was that bothered except her.

Laura was given a rules explanation and she seemed to get the gist pretty quickly, judging by Katy’s wail of “Are you yanking my chain?” midway through the game. Also, everyone seemed keen on the brown die as it soon rose to six in value with everyone putting it up. I think Katy got it in the end, but it must’ve gone down by the end.

Martin 11

Katy 4

Laura 2

We were still halfway through Cryo, with Ian schooling us on how to max out a super power, rescuing an extra man each time while also spending less. I kept running out of resources and scrapped three ships to get me out of a tight spot. As we still had a way to go, Martin, Katy and Laura played Biblios again.

This time was much closer with it all being decided on the final red dice, which people had been ignoring or discarding for the whole game. In the end, Laura picked it up for 3 reds.

Laura 5

Katy 4

Martin 4

Finally, we finish Cryo when Ian cuts his turn short by returning the only drone he’d used, thus triggering the end of the game with Sam and I still with unfinished plans in progress.

Ian 36

Andrew 28

Sam 28

We’d finished at the same time as the second Biblios so, after Laura left, we played Ten. This is basically a simple push-your-luck game with a few slightly confusing rules regarding money and the circulation thereof. Halfway through, Martin was still unsure we were doing it right while Katy said she liked how it worked. Honestly, will those two ever agree?

Sam 20

Ian 16

Martin 16

Katy 16

Andrew 13

Then I left, but the night was far from over. According to the late night text from Sam they played Spicy.

Sam 21

Ian and Katy 18

Martin 1

Then Ian must have left, unless he was just happy to watch them play Whale Riders the card game.

Sam 78

Martin 70

Katy 48

And then again…

Katy 50

Martin 49

Sam 40

Finally with a win under her belt, Katy left and then Martin ended the evening by beating Sam 21-12 in Letter Press.

Thanks all. Do it again soon please.

Shangri-la-la-land

Despite Joe's place being closest to my house of all GNN venues, I still arrived at a shoddily late time of ten past eight. Six gamers were already settled around a table; Joe, Sam, Katy, Martin, Ian and Mel. They were playing Kartenmeck (sp?) Heckmeck, which is like Heckmeck, except you’re playing cards from your hand and not rolling dice. Get the highest possible total to win the best possible tile from the available selection. And, like Heckmeck, you can steal tiles from opponents if you match the value exactly. This  happened occasionally, usually with apologies that they had no choice.

Mel ended with two of the three zero tiles, which is clearly unfortunate. Almost as unfortunate as Sam who was sitting nearest Sybil the dog when she decided to do a few bottom pops.

Katy 30

Sam 27

Martin 26

Ian 22

Joe 18

Mel 12

 

Next we split into two groups. After its successful appearance on Saturday, Cryo was brought back to the table. Katy and Joe joined old hands Sam and Ian for a game of resource management and survival. A constant theme of the game was the use of the term “to pull off” meaning to rescue people. “I’m going to pull off this guy here,” someone would announce to a reaction of stifled giggles. Sam tried to come up with other phrases, finally settling on “rescue” as a sensible, family-friendly option but not before Joe expressed his delight at finding a move that allowed him to pull off three guys at once.

The game went on so long and I went so early that I don’t actually know the scores.

Martin, Mel and I played Bridges of Shangri-La. Far more cerebral and less smutty, this game involves students crossing bridges to spread their learning from village to village and then blowing up the bridges they just crossed. Mel focused on the side of the board nearest her while I kept getting my symbols mixed up, confusing Yeti-whispers with Priests. What a faux pas.

Mel 25

Martin 21

Andrew 21

After this we played Whale Riders, the card game. A wafer-thin game with confusingly similar illustrations on the cards. It had a Fuji Flush-like mechanic in that once enough of a certain type of card was showing, they scored: being turned face down in front of you, while everything else on the table was discarded. We played twice, once with the base game, and then the advanced version with extra rules. It was okay.

Basic: 

Martin 74

Mel 44

Andrew 37

Advanced:

Mel 76

Martin 59

Andrew 35

And with that, Mel and I left while the rest played on. Possibly my shortest attendance at a games night. Getting old, you see. Thanks all. See  you next week.

Frozen III

Last night Ian Andrew and I crash-landed on a forbidding planet. With only hours before sundown, we had to get our crew to the relative warmth of the underground before the temperature plummeted to non-life-supporting climes and anyone still on the surface froze. Fortunately we had a platform from which to launch our drones, and a steady supply of lime-flavoured crisps. It was Cryo.

Ship top, caverns below

The ship has broken into four distinct and semi-functional parts: on a turn you can either assign a drone to go visit one of them (collect stuff/do actions) or recall all your drones. Broadly speaking the goal is to move your crew pods from the broken ship to the caverns, but there are some interesting wrinkles. For one, your platform isn't just a garage for drones: it also houses rescued crew, and allows you to build processing units that are activated by the recalled droids. Secondly, although the caverns are safe, they are also the scene of a show of force: having the most survivors in a cavern means you control it, which is good for getting points.

Control

Finally Cryo is a game where you're racing against time, and the palpable desperation takes hold as factions that start peacefully coexisting descend into war as the clock ticks ever closer to doomsday: players can and will harpoon each other, sabotaging the ship and blowing parts of it up whilst other players still occupy it. 

Bang

Allied to drone activity are a currency of cards, that can be used to upgrade your platform, represent vehicles (needed to transport your crew underground) discarded for scrap or played face-down as missions, for end-game points. The game becomes more tense as the final moments tick away, as nobody is entirely sure when the sun will vanish over the horizon until either the moment comes, or you choose to end it yourself. I foolishly forewent this option, thinking victory was safe, and allowed Andrew to sneak past me for the win: his mission got him a paltry 2 points, but he made drone hay whilst mine dawdled, recharging on the platform.

Andrew 32 / Sam 29 / Ian 23

Having established the new order, Andrew went home for an early bed, and Ian and I pondered what two-player fun we could have. We stayed in the cosmos with a double-blast of Quantum, where I took the first game with some dastardly upgrades...

And the second one as well, thanks to some more dastardly stuff but also Ian's appallingly bad luck on some early dice-rolling, that swing momentum my way in irrecoverable fashion. 

We finished off the evening with a little-seen old favourite in (Extreme) Biblios. We were so rusty, we forgot what colours are.

Ian made me eat shit no less than five times, and remains King Biblios (the only player to have won all five dice) but last night I regained the Mr Biblios title with a 9-7 win as I snaffled green, orange and red dice. It was still early - 10pm! - but we wrapped things up there, with another chapter written in the annals of GNN. I'm keen to play Cryo again - maybe Tuesday...?