Third Dan

The muggy Bristol heat almost made for an eighth player last night, with even Sybil subdued by humidity. But we were seven: Joe hosting, Martin, Adam T, Katy, Ian, myself (Sam) and newbie Dan who has just moved in around the corner from Joe, so - who knows? - may feature regularly for the year he plans on staying.

I was a little late and before I arrived they played Panic Lab. I know nothing about it other than the fact there is a Dobble-esque real-time pressure and therefore probably best I was late. Martin, apparently, was the least panicked when they finished.

Then, with Dan's arrival imminent, we split into two factions of Pax Pamir and Chinatown and set up whilst trying to recall all the Dans who have come and gone in the near-decade existence of GNN. There's been at least two. I thought there was three, but then I remembered one of them wasn't called Dan. Anyway: in Afghanistan it was Adam, Martin and myself. Across the other side of the world Joe, Katy and Ian explained Chinatown to now-present Dan. Or Joe did. "The rules are very simple" he assured him. "I just can't remember them."

We had no such issues in Pamir, having played it only last week. Adam and Martin aligned themselves with the Afghans whilst I went Russian. This gave me a bit of a workout keeping up with the pair of them placing armies and roads on the board - in order to score points I either needed the Russians dominant or nobody at all. The latter was more likely.

Normally when Pamir gets played there's one player who gets stuck in stasis - not having enough cash, or stuck with off-suit cards and taking underwhelming turns whilst waiting for the tide to change. Last night was the first time this seemed to happen to all of us simultaneously though; Adam cash-poor, Martin frustrated by the cards and me having to add cards to my court then instantly discard them several times.

On the other half of the table, there were no in-at-the-deep-end troubles for Dan - he seemed to be in his element, channeling the survival skills of the perpetually self-employed as he haggled for position in Chinatown. But beyond that I didn't pick up much of what was going on, as Pamir's inscrutability took all our attention.

When the first dominance card was activated (by the appearance of the second) nobody was dominant, so Adam and I shared non-dominant points: a massive 2 each with Martin back on zero. I was seconds away from a win as Martin - now aligned with the British - removed an Afghan road instead of a Russian one. But he changed his mind! Then as we inched towards the third dominance scoring, I changed allegiance to the Afghans and so did Martin. Suddenly we were all vying for dominance and I was in pole position. I gave the warlords a second gift, and wrapped the game up with the others unable to prevent me scoring:

Sam 7
Adam/Martin 2

Martin's face suggested he was marginally less enamoured of Pamir than last week, and both he and Adam said Pax Porfiriana is less abstracted. In fact Martin's complaint wasn't about the play but the lack of theme. As the winner, I was less bothered by that but I agreed with Adam's summary: It was too hot to play Pamir.

Chinatown was still in full-construction so we tried our luck, literally, at PUSH; Joe's recent purchase of card collection and implosion. I remembered Andrew's success and decided to bank as soon as my cards went into double figures, and despite some swingy dice-rolling, this tactic worked for me too:

Sam 74
Martin 61
Adam 56

To Martin's disbelief, they were still at it in Chinatown, so we played the (not hugely dissimilar to PUSH) L.A.M.A as well. Martin's evening went from bad to worse:

Sam 8
Adam 13
Martin 43

As we wrapped that up, the final roof tile was placed in Chinatown and the scaffolders left for good. When the dust of negotiation settled, the triumphant wheeler-dealer was Dan:

Dan 11,70000
Katy 11,10000
Joe 10,80000
Ian 10,40000

It had been an epic but everyone seemed happy to have lived through it. But with the time now pressing on somewhat, Ian departed for home and Adam T followed him out the door. We were left as a five and that was the perfect number for Martin's new addition to his games cupboard, QE.

I guess QE, unsnappy though it is, is still more snappy than quantitive easing, which is what it stands for. Players each represent a country (apart from me - I was the EU) trying to become the most profitable by bidding for industries. Over 15 turns (three rounds of five) an industry tile is flipped over that will score between 2-4 points, and represents an industry as well as a country. If you buy your own country tile, it's worth additional points to you. If you have diverse industries, that's good - but you can also score points by specialising. Your industries are gathered together in a bingo-like card in front of you, where your other scores are recorded as well.

One considerable catch with QE is that you can bid absolutely anything you like: from zero to fifty trillion and higher. But the player who has spent the most, like High Society, is an instant loser. This leads to a see-saw battle battle between bidding high enough to win and not so high as to promote yourself to status of most-profligate. And the other considerable catch is all bids are hidden from everyone except the auctioneer: when it's your turn, you start the bidding (everyone sees that) and then you get to see all bids and announce the winner, but without announcing the bid itself. Instead the bid is recorded on the industry tile and kept face-down. Everybody has the option of looking at the winning bid too, which is really helpful, but can only use this special power once in the entire game.

It amounted to a weird mix of group-think and second-guessing. Martin claimed the first two tiles to himself and got them, considering where we ended up, very cheaply. Dan started pushing the bids up as he claimed no less than three housing tiles. Katy also seemed to be doing well early on. I had a strong mid-game, but Joe was stuck on one tile and kept being outbid. Determined to get the final one, he hiked up the price to 10,000 and got the tile - but also shunted himself into last position by virtue of money-spent. Dan and I looked most productive, and I pipped him to the win:

Sam 41
Dan 36
Martin 31
Katy 28
Joe 18 and spent most!

Katy and I now plumped for Dead Man's Chest to finish the evening. Martin was against it, not least because the rules are always so oddly bewildering to us, and when I brought Dan to see Joe's game collection he also vehemently insisted I had "twice as many" games as Joe. We also mentioned the blog to Dan somewhere around this point, which was a real "Let's invite him to the club, Michael" moment: Dan realised that despite the relatively light baptism with Chinatown, perhaps wasn't all quite as it seemed.

Martin returned with some options but found Katy was already explaining the rules of Dead Man's Chest to Dan. We all chipped in with some extra clarifications at this point, none of which helped particularly. I suggested since Dan was to my right I start and he can watch us play, but I'm not sure this helped either. It is such a bizarre game, and Dan was unsurprised to go out first (I think), reflecting that "I should never have looked" after his second challenge on Katy. Martin was next to fall (I think), followed by Katy and leaving Joe and I to face off. I guessed his bluff, and - even more bizarre - picked up my fifth win of the night!

1 Sam
2 Joe
3 Katy
4 Martin
5 Dan

With the distant sound of thunder rumbling in from Clifton but the heat still as stifling as when we arrived, it was finally time to go. Another wonderful GNN evening, and hopefully we'll see Dan again. He seemed to be as coherent when he left as when he arrived.

I had a funny title, but I didn’t write it down

This week's games night was staged around Joe's kitchen table with Joe, Sam, Martin, Adam, Katy and me seated expectantly around it.

Our first game (after an unsuccessful attempt at a conversation to keep us occupied until Katy arrived) was L. A. M. A. A clever card game, not dissimilar to what The Mind might become should it get shitfaced and go out looking for trouble. Like the aforementioned genial co-op game, L.A.M.A involves putting cards down in steadily increasing values (one to six and then the llama card resets things back to one). But this time, there is a real delight in screwing over your opponents. Holding on to a card of a value that has otherwise been exhausted causes wails of anguish from your opponents as they have to pick up card after card, stuck behind the logjam you created. It was a lot of fun.

Katy 11
Adam 12
Sam 14
Joe 29
Martin 30
Andrew 41

The group split into two at this point. Adam, Sam and I played Orbit, the new slightly sol-esque game of space exploration. Basically, we send our three ships to fly-by, orbit, land and/or return from the eight planets while they slowly move around the circular board.

Sam got into an early lead with a quickly accomplished Pioneer card getting him three points. Adam managed to fly-by Jupiter and Saturn at the same time! As the game went on, Adam moved further and further into the lead such that Sam and I were reduced to picking up Mission Cards, hoping that it'd work like Ticket To Ride and give you a set of criteria that you've already achieved. Turns out it doesn't work that way at all.

Adam 31
Andrew 18
Sam 13

We all enjoyed it and we were confident that Ian and Other Adam would like it too. Then we speculated about the players sitting across the table from us. Right in front of them. Joe, probably, but as for the others... Who knows what floats their boat?

They didn't respond to our musings (that I recall) since they were still finishing the second of the two games they'd played.

The first was Res Arcana, a game I haven't played simply because it would be too embarrassing. The names of the different cards are so absurd they must be deliberate parody. And while Martin sounded suitably portentous when he told them he was destroying his Corrupt Altar, when Joe said he'd got a Hypnotic Basin he sounded more like a disappointed ebay customer. Nevertheless, Joe grabbed first placed thanks to some clever tactics that generated lots of gold that everyone seemed impressed by but I didn't understand it at all.

Joe 13
Martin 11
Katy 8

After this, they banged out a three handed game of L.A.M.A. with Joe victorious again.

Joe 16
Martin 20
Katy 41

Now we were all together again and Martin floated the idea of Decrypto. Adam wasn't keen but when we found out that Katy hadn't played, our decision was set. Decrypto it was. Martin, Katy and I faced Sam, Adam and Joe.

It went to the seventh round and that makes it sound very close but in retrospect, Team M.K.A. were struggling. Thanks to one word, Barracks (spelt without a 'c' on the card) which caused us no end of trouble. Both me and Katy gavs clues for it that equally applied to another word we had: Sword. I put "wooden" for Barracks because they are but Martin and Katy immediately focused on "wooden sword". Miscommunication one. Then Katy used "fence" for Barracks (because they have fences) but Martin and I were convinced by the sword/fencing link. Miscommunication two and defeat.

But that's not to take anything away from team S.J.A. (I forgot to note the actual team names) who cleverly gave a clue to a word that we knew we'd deciphered, but we failed to see the connection. The word was "wedding" and the clue was "Idol" which kind of linked to our suspicion that they also had "heaven" as a word so we chose that instead. But, of course the link was Billy Idol - White Wedding. Well done Joe for fooling us so late in the game.

Joe, Sam, Adam: James Bond
Katy, Martin, Andrew: James Bay

Finally, in a frisky mood, we played Dead Man's Chest. And what a game it was. Joe, in his pomp after two victories, made short work of Martin with some audacious bids that Martin failed to read, including a bid of 2-2 when he'd rolled 5-2

But his run of form couldn't unsettle Katy who saw through Joe's bids and he was out next. I followed thanks to Katy rolling Dead Man. Sam went out to Adam, leaving the final two: Katy versus Adam. Adam won the first round, bringing the score to one life left for each. But then Katy rolled Dead Man again, and Adam could only challenge. No hope.

Katy wins!
Adam
Sam
Andrew
Joe
Martin

And we were done for the night. A sterling night's entertainment, with a promising newcomer (Orbit) and a game we wondered why we don’t play every week (DMC). Thanks to Joe and to all who attended. It was special.

The Alms Race

Tonight's games night began with a real rarity: a crossword puzzle. Specifically the crossword that Joe had devised and posted on GNN. Sam and Martin were poring over Joe's clues and, with help from the quizmaster himself in times of difficulty, they finished it off. It was an impressive creation by Joe, although he was disappointed in himself for letting a couple of mistakes slip by.

As a quartet, we filled the time until Ian arrived with a game of Orongo. This game, like San Marco, has a name that prompts people to adopt Australian accents. This is despite, also like San Marco, the game has nothing to do with the land down under.

Instead, it is set on Easter Island, where each player is a tribe eager to build their statues (or moai) before the others. This is done by placing a trail of counters on the map, connecting suitable resources to a space on the coast. And the placing of these counters is decided by secret auction. The winner loses all of their seashells (putting them in the reef where, hopefully, they won't roll off the board) but places first and puts down three counters. Second place keeps their seashells and places two tiles. Third and beyond place just one. But if you bid no seashells at all you get to take whatever is in the reef, which is usually the winning bid.

Except if more than one player bids zero they share what is in the reef and Joe and I demonstrated our synchronicity by bidding zero together on several occasions. It would have been touching were it not so annoying.

Sam, meanwhile, began in a corner of the island that saw few resources being drawn early in the game. Martin built a statue with his very first move, and always looked good for the win. In fact, if he'd bid a little lower a couple of times, he could have wrapped up the game earlier. He still wrapped it up, though.

Martin 0 statues left
Sam 1
Andrew 1
Joe 2

It was a nice game, containing plenty of Reiner Knizia's finest ingredients. In fact, Martin brought a whole pile of Knizia games, leading me to remark wittily that it could be called a Reinerssance. Any pleasure I had from my pun was dashed by learning that several people, including Martin, had already used it in the past.

Ian arrived at the dying stages of Easter Island's flawed social system and next up was Chickwood Forest. This game has been offered as an option for some weeks and now, thanks to its ability to accommodate five players, it got its chance to shine.

After a rules explanation, where we learnt that you have to specialise in treasure chests, gain unique garments, and grab as much jewelry as possible. This is done by playing cards to one of six castles, some face up and some face down, and then choosing them. Are the face down cards evil (such as henchmen, bust chests or maybe even a kind of chest/garment you'd rather avoid) or are they rather good and just pretending to be evil? That's the dilemma.

At first, with all this talk about treasure, I said it was very "inchesting" which, for a short while, was the front runner for the blog title. Then we learnt about the part of the game where you get points for alms. At first, my quip of "two alms to hold you" had unseated "inchesting" but then Ian remarked that it was a bit of an "alms race" and the decision was made. Thanks Ian.

The almshouses were an interesting part of the game. The player with most cubes got most points, but ties were broken according to who was in last. So it was possible to ignore it for the first part of the game and then pepper the village with your cubes in the final stages.

This is what Joe did and this strategy, coupled with his collection of five green chests (worth 25 points), gave him the win.

Joe 70
Sam 67
Martin 64
Ian 52
Andrew 43

There were cautious murmurs of approval for the game. If I recall right, Martin called it "a perfect example of a modern eurogame," which is as non committal as you can get.

Next to the table was Voodoo Prince. This game, perfect for five, is usually played in a truncated manner at the very end of an evening. This time, though, it was given the full five rounds.

I got a bit of luck in round one, putting down the purple 15 thinking I was bound to win, only to see Ian had put down the purple 0: the only card that could have saved me. Then in round two, Joe tried to flush out the black cards by leading with high blacks in the first two tricks (and winning them) and then playing a low black in the third trick. Unfortunately for him, no one else had any black cards left and no one trumped him, so he got his third trick in the shortest possible time. At the end of the round we checked the undealt cards and saw how unlucky he was: there were four black cards in the ten unused cards.

Round three was very cagey and, at one point, everyone was on two tricks. Joe was able to redeem himself somewhat when he netted the maximum twelve points for that round. Then in round four, it ended with Martin versus Sam. Martin had the seven in the trump suit which would see him go from one to three tricks, thanks to the seven’s special power. But Sam had the 15 and 14 in the trump suit and Martin’s plan was foiled.

Round five was just a case of me waiting until enough points were available to win, and then bailing. Which I did.

Andrew 45
Martin 38
Sam 36
Ian 26
Joe 21


Lastly, we went out on Dead Man’s Chest. A remarkable game, as they usually are, in which I got my first Dead Man and we witnessed luck at its most peculiar: Joe bid 2-2 and handed to Sam. Sam shook the box, looked, shook the box again and handed it to martin, bidding 3-3. Martin challenged and it was 4-4. Amazing.

Ian out first, challenged Martin’s 1-1
Sam out, challenged Joe’s 6-1.
Martin out when I challenged his 6-5
I went out when a wrongly challenged Joe's 2-2.
Joe wins!

Thanks all for another great evening. Will the fun never stop?

This is a photo of fun not stopping.

When In Rome

The monthly GNN game of Time of Crisis is usually planned weeks in advance, but not this time. I had been expecting a fallow May followed by activities in June when Joe discovered he had the run of the house on Saturday. With Martin occupied elsewhere, it was Sam who stepped into the breach.

We begin at 7.13 on the dot, and it is a slow start. I am in Thracia, Ian in Gallia, Joe in Africa and Sam in Galatia. Joe looks at the board and said “interesting...”

In fact, I was so disappointed in my last game that I was determined to do the same opening move as before. So with three blues and two yellows I put an undefended governor in Macedonia, only this time instead of giving him a militia I boosted his support to level two.

Everyone else went for the classic opening of three blue, two red. Ian puts a governor and army in Hispania, Joe puts a governor in Egypt and builds another army in Africa. Sam builds a governor and army in Syria.

It’s a very quiet start. In the next round, I build a Basilica in Thracia and moved an army into Pannonia. Ian, Sam and Joe all built Limes, prompted by the sight of an Ira Deorum crisis roll that sent masses of barbarians to our borders.

The Franks are first to invade (as they did repeatedly throughout the game) but we have Good Auguries on our side, so we are almost happy to see them.

Ian certainly is, as he clears them out of Gallia and then takes Britannia. Joe moves an army into still-neutral Italia, and Sam takes over Asia.

For my next move, I get beaten up by some unusually active Goths in Thracia, but console myself with becoming Emperor! At 7.57. I have little chance of holding onto it with Joe’s army in the capital, but I figure I’d best start on my Empire soon.

Ian then mobs me in Italia while building in the UK. Joe strengthens an army in Africa, as the Nomads are congregating, and steals Asia from Sam. The Sassanids suddenly rise up and swoop into Syria and Egypt. Sam thinks about attacking the Sassanids, even though it’s two legions versus three barbarians. “It’s as good a time as any,” suggests Ian, cunningly prompting one of his rivals into war. After some contemplation, Sam does attack but, alas, he picks up the evil dice and rolls a 2-1. He should’ve used the other dice. The Sassanids get in three hits in reply.

I get the Goths out of Thracia and clear that pesky mob in Italia. I am still Emperor, to my surprise.

My surprise does not last long as Ian easily unseats me in his next move. Our second Emperor at 8.22. Joe has a dreadful hand with two blue points that he can’t use. He invades the Nomad homelands and wins handsomely, but forgets about that lone Sassanid in Egypt. His support falls to zero and suddenly he only has Africa and a very tenuous grip on Asia under his command.

Sam rolls and gets an event card that I don’t recall ever seeing. Ludi Saeculares. Ian, as Emperor, has to discard a card but he gets points according to it’s value. Discard a strong card but get points on the board? He decides against it and gets rid of a lowly one-card.

Sam takes Asia back from Joe. I finally get rid of the Franks in Pannonia thanks to recruiting one of them that happened to be very good at rolling sixes. Ian is still Emperor, though.

My largely military-free regions

Ian builds an army in Italia and tries to get rid of Joe. He fails, though. Joe uses one blue point to try and retake Egypt. He needs a six but rolls a five. He kills off the Sassanid anyway.

Sam hangs on to troubled Syria by boosting support and then watching it fall back to one. I build two armies and recruit a barbarian.

Ian is annoyed at still being Emperor, since he needs the governor and won’t survive the support check so won’t get the rewards of his Empire-ness. He boost supports in other regions instead.

With a neutral senate, Joe easily becomes Emperor at 9.19. He finally takes back Egypt, too. Sam clears Syria of Sassanids and a Priest King that I forgot to mention in my notes until now. He then gets voted into Egypt to weaken Joe in Rome.

By now the scores are pretty close: Ian 40, Joe 38, Sam 35, Andrew 34.

I take Egypt from Sam since I need a fourth province to get a Pretender card. Ian moves an army into Italia and beats Joe. Joe retreats and Ian becomes Emperor again at 9.53! He is also on 52 points.

Sorry for putting my glass on your board, Joe.

Joe loses to Ian in Italia, takes Egypt off me and then fails to get voted into Ian’s Hispania.

Sam invades the Sassanids’ homeland, and also takes Egypt from Joe even though he knows he’ll lose it immediately. I have a plan to attack Ian’s Britannia and then use his Basilica against him. I am unsure of the number of movement points between Gallia and Britannia, though. I don’t want Ian to know of my plan (although, in retrospect, he couldn’t have done anything about it) so I text Joe and ask him. He texts me back, saying there are two movement points. This ruins my plans, since I don’t have enough red points in my hand.

Instead I attack him in Rome but fail. I beat the Alamanni in Thracia but lose to the Franks in Pannonia. Sam said “I’ll try to roll low” before he rolled a double six. After that I needed a hopeless nine votes with my five blue points. Needless to say, I did not succeed.

Ian’s last hand has 10 yellow points! He build three buildings and triggers the end of the game as he hits 69 points. My sad Pretender card was still sitting in the discards, waiting to be recycled but never to be used.

In his final turn, Joe attacks Ian in Hispania but Ian’s single legion manages to get four hits to Joe’s one! Joe fails to get voted into Emperor and he ends on a damp squib. Sam’s final turn is a cracker, though. He kills some Sassanids, and fights and beats me in Thracia before unseating Joe in now-undefended Africa.

Ian 79
Sam 57
Andrew 53
Joe 48

A great performance by Ian and well done to Sam for coming in second despite never becoming Emperor.

We ended with a quick Texas Showdown, during which Cybil really got talkative.

Andrew 3
Sam 7
Ian 8
Joe 12

And then we played two rounds of Dead Man’s Chest, with only two lives instead of the regulation five for a four-player game. I won the first when Joe foolishly tried to challenge my 5-5. In the second game Sam won when he bid 3-3. I passed it back, thinking perhaps he was being clever, with the bid of 5-5. It wasn’t.

And with that, we were done. Thanks for hosting, Joe, and for the bourbon. Very much appreciated. And thanks to all for another great evening.

Mhing the merciless

Eight gamers squeezed into Joe's kitchen for some pre-Easter gaming fun. Along with Joe were Martin, Katy, Ian, Stuart, Sam, Andy and me.

We began with a nice communal game of Fuji Flush. Sam's opening hand was so bad the he ignored the usual rule of keeping them secret to show his neighbours: a veritable blue rainbow of cards below four. His luck changed slightly during the game, though, which is more than can be said for Katy.

Andrew 0 cards left
Andy, Martin, Stuart 1
Sam, Joe, Ian 2
Katy 4

At this point we embarked upon perhaps the longest discussion we've ever had about what to play next. Splitting into two groups of four was obvious, but who would be where and what was on offer?

Slowly, one game after another was brought to the table with varying degrees of reaction. Heaven and Ale was an early favourite but there were worries about the amount of space it would need. Joe then made an executive decision and got out the card table. With the chance of a card game on offer, Martin quickly moved his chair and sat beside it. He even grabbed onto it and drew it towards him, making him even more snug.

With more room on the large table, Heaven and Ale became the clear front runner and, in an effort to avoid further procrastination, Sam was encouraged to set it up and see who was interested.

Katy seemed keen but didn't want to learn a big game so soon before her year-long absence. So it was me, Sam, Ian and Andy who set off on our monastic beer quest.

The other group began their card game trilogy with The Mind. This game of consecutive guesswork played out in silence, punctuated by muffled laughter. The only talking was between rounds when they discussed the previous round.

And there were plenty of rounds to discuss. They managed to make it to the Dark Mind where the cards are played face down. Katy wanted to pee, but carried on thinking that the game was about to end at any second. But it didn't. They survived one insurmountable odd after another and cleared round three!

At this point, Katy had to go to the toilet. Did this interruption ruin their flow? Or was the task too great to continue, since once she was back, they failed round four. But only by a narrow margin.

Then they played Krass Kariert, which I paid less attention to. All I recall is the occasional comment about how mean you could be to people.

Joe and Martin won
Stuart came second
Katy lost

Finally, they played Mhing, a card game version of Mah Jong. I kept hearing calls of "Chow" and "pung" but since I was now deep into the endgame of H&A, I didn't follow it. Joe helpfully suggested to me that "Fuck the green dragon" could be used as a blog title, and as I was jotting that down, Katy began the next round with the words "that is the south wind... from my anus." Since the pen was already in my hand, I thought I'd preserve it for posterity.

Katy 128
Martin 64
Stuart 32
Joe 8

The reaction to the game seemed positive, but mostly prompted a longing to actually play Mah Jong. Joe even brought out his briefcase-sized, slightly stinky, set for all to admire.

Meanwhile, in Heaven and Ale we were in the final stages. Or, for Ian and me, the death throes. Andy had overcome his slow start where his biermiester seemed unwilling to go anywhere in a hurry, and was now bearing down hard on the monktastic Sam. I, once again, failed to put together a money making machine.

Ian had a healthy looking board and spent most of round five sauntering round and completing a cheap shed, but then he couldn't get to the scoring tokens in time in round six. This meant for the both of us the final round involved leaping absurdly ahead just to score any points at all.

Andy and Sam were playing a much more measured game. They took their time in round six with money in the bank. Andy managed to complete both sides of his board, to our amazement. He tried to insist that he didn't know if that was a good thing or not, but he did so in the tone of voice of a man sitting in front of a five course meal trying to tell people that it might not fill him up.

Sam played his usual monk-heavy game and with a very highly placed biermiester, he did enough to see off the challenge from the young upstart Andy.

Sam 49
Andy 40
Andrew 23
Ian 18

Actually when we ended, Mhing was still someway off completion, so we banged out a few quick games. For Sale was first, with some peculiar tableaux of cards whose values were all pretty equally shit. People picked them up for nothing usually with me as the main beneficiary. And then, when real high cards came out, everyone overpaid for them. Everyone except me. What I'm saying is my pile of cash pushed me from distant second into first.

Andrew 70
Andy 68
Sam 58
Ian 44

Then we played a couple of games of Fuji Flush. The first can only be described as Friendly Fuji Flush, as we seemed to follow the cards on the table rather than ruin them. It was the first game of Fuji Flush to have a sense of community, someone remarked. It was also very short, with Sam getting rid of his six cards in six rounds.

Sam 0 cards left
Andy and Andrew 2
Ian 3

Then we played a more typical spoiling game. It lasted longer and, if I'm being honest, was more fun. There's a moral in there, somewhere.

Andrew 0 cards left
Ian and Sam 1
Andy 2

Now we were all back together again and we decided on Dead Man's Chest to finish us off. This was Stuart's first game so we explained the rules to him (not that that's helped in the past). And we were off!

Andy was out first, since he merely passed on the chest, raising the bid by one. He never even looked at the dice. It could be considered an audacious tactic but the truth was he wasn't keen on the game. After that...

Joe out by accidentally looking
Stuart out to Kathy's bid of Dead Man
Martin out to Katy's blind bid of 1-1
Ian out to my challenge
Katy out wrongly challenged my 5-5
Andrew out when Sam challenged me
Sam wins!

And with that, we drew the curtain on another night of entertainment. Thanks to Joe for hosting and to everyone else for their company.

You wait ages for a dead man and then four come along at once

This week's gaming bonanza took place at Joe's house and consisted of eight gamers: Joe, Sam, Martin, Katy, Ian, Chris, Matt and me. We split into two groups. Ian, me, Joe and Martin went for Tichu, the red hot gaming craze of the age with Ian and Martin sticking together to see if their winning streak could continue. Katy, Sam, Matt and Chris chose the other red hot gaming craze of the age, Azul.

Our game of Tichu got underway without any real fuss (if you don't include the rearranging of chairs around the collapsible card table) since we all knew the rules. Martin got off to a flier, completing two Tichus while Joe failed his, which meant after two rounds the score was 335 to - 35. A healthy lead for Martin and Ian.

But there's no such thing as a healthy lead in Tichu and after two wins for Joe and I and a failed Tichu by Ian, the scores at the end of round four were 250 to 250. Amazing. With Azul coming to an end, we played one more hand as a decider. Martin called Tichu and failed, but he and Ian scored so many points for cards that most of the loss was erased. Most, but not all.

Joe & Andrew 260
Ian and Martin 240

On the big table, Chris was getting a rules explanation of Azul. It's a simple enough game and it seemed he got the hang of it quickly since Katy tried really hard to not be patronising when she told him that he was doing very well for a first-timer.

Katy emphasises her pig-tails which will, apparently, soon be gone.

At the end of the game, where they exhausted the supply of tiles, Katy played a spoiling tactic against Sam which was so blatant that she felt the need to apologise. While laughing, admittedly, but an apology nevertheless.

Katy 91
Sam 74
Chris 71
Matt 46

At this point, we were all between games, so there was a little bout of discussion. Katy was pitching for Lords Of Vegas, but no one was keen. Sam got four for Whistle Stop (himself, Ian, Chris and Matt) and the rest of us agreed to my suggestion of Hab & Gut.

It's been a while since it has been seen at a GNN night and Katy needed a full rules explanation. In the game itself, coal shot up in price and stayed there, firmly lodged against the top of the exchange rate for all of the second half of the game making it effectively worthless to us, having sold all our coal shares thinking it wouldn't get much higher.

Katy struggled with the rule about giving to charity. She thought she'd given enough at the end of the first round, only to find she was 200 Marks behind everyone else.

Martin kept buying shares I wanted, meaning I often ended up taking less than the optimal three and having to make do with Martin's leftovers. Plus, it meant any decision that helped me, helped Martin too. A terrible situation.

Martin 1205
Joe 875
Andrew 775
Katy OUT! Not pious enough! (but had 840)

Whistle Stop was still under way so we banged out a quick Potato Man. The most notable event was round three when all the cards were played and the scores fell in such a way that we were all tied on fourteen points. All except Katy, who had ten. The fourth round proved to be the decider.

Andrew 18
Joe 16
Martin 16
Katy 13

I'm afraid I know little about the shenanigans in Whistle Stop, but long after the scores were totted up and noted, I got an email from Chris saying they'd forgotten a rule in the latter stages that meant Sam should've scored an extra twenty points, thus his slim victory was invalid. This kind of honesty is worth thirty points in my opinion! But thirty points in life. Not in Whistle Stop. So Sam's victory stands.

Sam 130
Chris 115
Matt 111
Ian 94

With evening having firmly drawn in, we ended with a rousing and odds-defying game of Dead Man's Chest. It was Chris's first game and sadly, despite all our experience, a swift and effective rules explanation of this simple game eludes us. It is a grim truth that anyone's first game of Dead Man's Chest is a learning game.

And what lessons it taught us all! I got an early Dead Man and knocked a gem off Joe. Then the players started to be eliminated.

Katy, out when Martin challenged her bet
Chris, out when he challenged by accident by opening the box
Martin, out when I roll Dead Man and call 3-3. Joe passed it on saying 4-4. Martin challenged.
Matt, out when Sam called 3-3. Matt challenged. Another Dead Man!
Ian out when Joe shook the box, looked, shook again and then bid Dead Man. Ian challenged. It was Dead Man! Amazing!
Joe out when he challenged my bid of 1-1.
Andrew out when Sam bid 3-3. I sensed a bluff, since 3-3 had become the preferred bid if you roll Dead Man so I challenged. It was 5-5.
Sam wins!

What an astonishing end to the evening. Isn’t it great to have a hobby where this kind of thing happens all the time.

We’ll always have Powys

GNN games weekends are the semi-regular binge of board games that allow us to experience things that simply wouldn't happen during a typical evening session. Such as a hungover Ian trying to sleep in a nook by a window while all around him is chaos, or Katy swearing loudly at noon or my attempt at playing a dense, convoluted eurogame while also making pizzas.

It all began on Friday. I got a lift there with Sam and Stanley. We off at four o'clock, and the journey was pretty straightforward, taking about an hour. No such luck for Joe and Katy who had left Bristol at one, but managed to get lost three times, meaning it took them three hours. "We were so lost, we found a games shop in Monmouth," explained Joe.

Either way, when we arrived at Crickhowell (in Powys), Joe Katy, Hannah, Adam and Arthur were already there. And, far from chucking our stuff into rooms and getting straight down to some serious gaming, we stood around and chatted, apparently oblivious to the neat stacks of games in the corner of the room.

The earliest sign of our competitive spirit was a brief spell on the table tennis table while Joe and Katy cooked. After a delicious meal, we finally started gaming with Bandu. Stanley impressed us with his withering look since Katy made no allowances for his young age, handing him some terrible pieces.

Adam
Joe
Sam
Stanley /Andrew
Katy

This was followed by Hannah beating Joe and Katy (77, 71, 68 respectively) at Isles of Skye, and Sam beating Stanley, me and Adam (130, 128, 112, 107) at Ethnos, with its irritating base-60 score track.

Ethnos

During these games, Steve and Jon arrived (Jon, without Power Grid! For shame) and kids were put to bed. There were a couple of games of Happy Salmon, an action game that involves drawing cards and then trying to find someone else around the table who has the same action, while everyone else is doing the same. It looks absurd, and the silent version doubly so, but it seemed popular throughout the weekend.

At first, we split into two groups of four, for Ticket To Ride and Clans Of Caledonia on offer. Then Jon made the switch across the table to TtR, leaving Clans as a three-player affair.

This was possibly a wise move, since even as a three-player (two of whom were novices) Clans of Caledonia lasted a long time. Long after Ticket to Ride ended, and they were deep into Tumblin’ Dice.

Ticket To Ride
Hannah 176
Jon 164
Joe 138
Katy 113
Steve 92

Tumblin’ Dice
Jon 138
Joe 112
Katy 102
Steve 39

Two remarkable an inexplicable defeats for Steve, who only escaped negative points in Tumblin’ Dice in the final round.

Clans of Caledonia was a struggle for me, and I probed the various options with all the timidity of a man pushing a button in a wall, convinced it would open a trapdoor under his feet. Adam, despite yawning through most of the rules explanation, had a much better idea about what was going on.

Adam 136
Sam 127
Andrew 89

By now it was late, and travel-weary and somewhat tipsy, we all got together for a game of Dead Man’s Chest, the game where explaining the rules is never quite enough. Steve and Jon were newbies, and they seemed as baffled as we once were. And sometimes still are.

As for the game, it had three Dead Man rolls (i.e., a one and two). One of which cost me a life on the very first roll of the game. Then the next two both hit Joe, one of which he opened by accident (“Oh. I looked.”). Sam finished in first, with both lives still intact.

Sam
Joe
Katy
Jon
Steve
Andrew

That was that for day one. On Saturday morning, people arose in the following order: Hannah, Stanley and Arthur at 7.30 (probably earlier), then me, Jon, Joe, Sam, Katy, Steve and then a big gap before Adam finally emerged at 9.45. The first game to be played, after all the various breakfasts, didn’t get going until 10.25, and it was Junk Art.

Steve 16
Adam 13
Joe 9
Katy 7

Meanwhile, Jon introduced me to Patchwork and won 15-2, but I was impressed by the game. Ian was collected from the station by Sam and they played a tight game of Heck Meck with Ian winning 13-12.

Next up was a true challenge: A Feast For Odin. Adam, Stanley, Ian and I all set off on this epic undertaking. Adam, though, had a trick up his sleeves: the rules. He’d watched a review or two and noticed that no one else builds up from the corner as we do, and he discovered that that rule only applied to calculating the income. Everything else was a free-for-all.

I had suggested playing a six-round game, but Adam quickly insisted on a seven-round one. I didn’t think anything about this at the time but looking back I remember that, although Adam had populated two islands, his main player board had almost no minus points covered during round six. Without that seventh round, things could’ve been very different. But we did have a seventh round, so things were all too familiar.

I went for animals, Stanley went pillaging and Ian started slow before suddenly filling his board with blue tiles.

Adam 111
Stanley 86
Ian 72
Andrew 65

In the kitchenette area, a game of Downforce was played, with the general consensus that the two-car strategy was a non-starter, with the eight-wheeled Jon and Steve trailing.

Sam 27
Joe 14
Steve 11
Jon 7

Steve was keen to get back on this horse, as it were, and another (five player) game of Downforce was set up. Again, Steve ended up with two cars, although I don’t think he had planned it that way. The race ended with both of his cars still on the track, racing each other for fifth place, until Steve ran out of cards and they both ended with a DNF.

Katy 24
Jon 20
Ian 18
Andrew 17
Steve 6

At this time, a game of Flipships was underway with Hannah, Joe, Stanley and Sam trying to keep the invading aliens at bay. My notes for this game read simply “Earth died.”

Meanwhile, Steve taught Katy and Jon the card game Tenbo. Possibly because he likes it or possibly because he wanted a game he knew he’d do well in.

Steve 21
Katy 15
Jon 13

Then, if last night’s Clans of Caledonia weren’t enough of a warning, I allowed myself to be recruited to another long game beginning with a hefty rules explanation: Yokohama. Even though I’d played it before and had some idea of what it entailed, I needed a rule refresher as much as the two beginners: Steve and Jon. Joe was the rules-explainer, but even he’d forgotten a great deal, and the rule book was never far from hand.

Yokohama

During Yokohama, Ian, Katy and Hannah comfortably played two medium sized games: Mad King Ludwig (Ian 95, Katy 89, Hannah 63) and Hit Z Road (Ian and Katy both survived – I don’t recall who won – but Hannah died early on).

Also Sam and Stanley played Near and Far. According to my notes, it was a draw.

As for me, I had to start making pizzas while still playing Yokohama. This made things difficult, not least because the layout of the kitchen meant a lot of walking back and forth, and I had to keep washing my hands before making my move.

My efforts at making pizza outlasted the game, and lead to a largely game-free period as people got their food one after the other. The scores for Yokohama were:

Jon 116
Steve 111
Joe 78
Andrew 60

The last of the food was being served (and thanks to Joe for knocking together some burritos to make up the shortfall in my pizzas) at nine o’clock and some restless gamers were after some gaming.

Hannah, Katy, Joe and I chose Lords of Vegas while the others set up a much-requested (by Stanley) game of Captain Sonar. Captain Adam, Steve and Jon were up against Captain Stanley, Sam and Ian. This game ended with a victory for Captain Stanley after Radio Operator Steve admitted he missed one of their movements and, from then on, didn’t know where the other submarine was.

In Lords of Vegas, it was a surprisingly swingy game. Katy started well, building lots of one-tile casinos of many colours, but then stalled as she couldn’t convert them to two-tile casinos quickly enough. So Joe took over, surging into a lead. But then he was undone by some reorganising from Katy and especially Hannah, who reduced his previously presidential presence in a five-tile casino to two miserable one-pip dice. I, meanwhile, faced early frustration in the lack of brown casinos paying out. My luck turned towards the end but too little, too late.

Hannah 40
Andrew 36
Joe 26
Katy 23

With Stanley off to bed, the other five played Tortuga. Ian won. “He was Dutch” says my not very helpful notes. “Everyone else lost. Weird conversation about nationalities” it continues.

Tortuga

People slowly peeled away to bed, leaving six players refusing to buckle under the weight of fatigue. Myself, Jon, Joe, Steve, Katy and Ian stayed up for more. And, just like last night’s Dead Man’s Chest, we chose to introduce Steve and Jon to a game that never seems to make sense, no matter how much you try to explain it. Namely, Bemused.

Ian pours himself a beer for Bemused

This game of adopting personas is more an event than a game. A chance to throw insults at people according to which muse they’ve been dealt. Painter, Thespian, Actor (who, invariably, is accused of never being able to play The Dane), Musician, etc. This time, though, I was the Dancer and I must’ve been pretty good since I was largely ignored. I made no secret of my animosity to my gemina, the musician (Jon), because no one else was going after him. And it worked. I finished the game sane and healthy, with my gemina safely “not sane” (i.e., dead, in this case. Actually killed by Katy, who finished him off while Jon was having a rule explained by to him by Joe. Harsh).

Andrew 8
Joe 6
Katy 5
Jon 3
Ian 3
Steve 2

Midnight had come and gone, but we all felt we had one more game in us. Katy asked for something she could play while lying on the sofa under a blanket. Joe suggested I Crossed The Border. This is a simple word game where one person thinks of a rule regarding things that people can take across a border. They then give an example of it, followed by everyone else trying to get stuff across the border. The rule-maker tells them if they’re successful or not. And we go round and round until one person is still clueless.

For example, Joe’s first rule was “Words with ‘oo’ in them” so “I crossed the border with a pair of boots” would be fine but “I crossed the border with a copy of Vogue magazine” would not.

Katy chose items that began with K, A, T or Y. Ian’s rule was that you had to have your hand against the side of your face when you crossed the border. Jon’s rule was don’t hesitate when you cross the border, which I totally failed to get.

My rule was that you had to say the item with a rising inflexion, like a question. Oddly, this meant Ian did very well at crossing the border, since he always framed his crossings as questions, whereas the others were more confident and made their crossings as statements. As such, Ian crossed back and forth, but never really knew why but the others didn’t. It wasn’t until Katy got it that it slowly dawned on the others what we were doing.

We ended at 1.10 on Sunday morning before we tore ourselves away from the buzz of competitive conversation and went to bed.

Sunday morning, and we slowly crawled from our rooms. The first game was played before 9 o’clock so, in that respect, we did better than Saturday. But the game in question was the lightest of games: The Pyramid’s Deadline, a new game I’d bought in Japan from Oink Games (Deep Sea Adventure, Fake Artist, Insider).

It involves building a pyramid-y shaped structure before the pharaoh dies (indicated by the last red square being chosen). The selection of building materials is determined by the roll of some dice, so obviously the speed at which the red squares deplete is random.

This might be why in game one, none of us (Hannah, Sam and me) completed our “pyramid”. Then in game two, Hannah was too cautious since both Sam I and completed our buildings after her, and I won. But, then again, in the third round Hannah won when neither Sam nor I finished.

By 9.15 everyone except Adam was up. Well, Ian was up, but seemed to be in constant danger of falling back down again as he struggled under a hangover.

At some point around now, I introduce Steve to The Pyramid’s Deadline, but I made no notes about the outcome.

Eventually, Katy took pity on Ian’s attempts at a nap on a window seat, and arranged for him to get some sleep in a proper bed (rather than the mattress in the utility room he’d had during the night).

Then we played Deep Sea Adventure. At least, Joe, Steve, Katy and I did. We began quickly and it wasn’t until it was Steve's turn that he asked for a rules explanation. It hadn’t occurred to us that he hadn’t played before!

Luckily DSA is the kind of game you can explain while you play, so it didn’t hold the game up too much. There was a remarkable lack of drownings, apart from Katy and I in round three.

Joe 42
Steve 35
Andrew 24
Katy 13

Sam, Stan and Jon played Near and Far, with Stan running out a clear winner, but that didn’t stop Sam from saying he’d enjoyed it more than the other night when he and Stan had tied for first.

Stanley 79
Sam 42
Jon 38

Next up was a game of Downforce. I ended up with three cars in my team, which was not my plan even if I had boasted beforehand that it was. If two cars is a curse, then surely three cars is a death wish! But, no! Thanks to some clever betting and keeping an early lead, I did okay. Not first, but pretty good.

My team in Downforce

Sam 13
Andrew 12
Ian 10
Stanley 8

While this was happening, another game of Yokohama was being played. Joe was keen to try it again while the rules were still fresh and he was confident that he could teach it better this time, too. Katy was drafted in to the game, along with last night’s conscripts Steve and Jon.

They kept saying it’d be quicker than last night, and maybe it was. But not by much. After Downforce had ended, Sam and I played Clans of Caledonia again. It was much quicker as a two player, and I did better, too.

Sam 126
Andrew 118

Hannah put together salad and cold meats and cheese for lunch. Still Yokohama kept going.

People started getting anxious about not having enough time for a walk. But Yokohama wouldn’t be rushed.

Finally it ended. Scoring was calculated, and it turned out to be the same person who won last time!

Jon 123
Joe 98
Steve 95
Katy 91

After that, it was time for the walk before being ferried back to Bristol by Sam. Five other gamers stayed on for one more evening, and I hope they’ll add their comments to the end of this post.

Meanwhile, thanks all. It was special!

A bird! In the sky!

Adam reports the final scores...

Capital lux
Joe 80
Adam 65
Hannah 39




Mysterium


We all won. But I won most and Katy won second most. Because we're overcompetetive. Joe was an excellent ghost.

Ticket to ride
Adam 178
Hannah 161
Katy 145
Joe 142
Jon 138


Apparently Katy isn't going to play with Hannah or I ever again.


Kingdomino
Jon 53
Adam 51
Katy 46
Joe 29




Team play
Adam & Joe 25
Katy & Jon 24

Good night folks!