Because he saw the salad dressing

 Joe answered to door at Sam’s place at 7.47 and let me in. At the kitchen table he, Sam, Katy, Adam H and Ian were all playing Zombie Kidz Evolution. Ian rolled a die and it was blank, which was good, but then Katy rolled a red side and that was bad and the game ended. Then they spent about five minutes opening envelopes and sticking stickers because the game had been played often enough that a new zombie card and rule had been unlocked.

Then we were six. Should we split into two? Adam was keen on six-player Railways of the World, while Ian mentioned Heat. But we chose Decrypto since it hadn’t been seen in literally years (since 2022, according to the blog). Joe, Ian and Katy teamed up against Sam, Adam H and me. Round one and two were clear, but it all started going wobbly on round three. 

Katy’s clue was intercepted by us (more by luck than judgement: we were pondering our options when we noticed that we could just make the same guess as last round, so we did. And we were right) and then Joe and Ian got it wrong! But then Sam and I misunderstood Adam’s clue.

In round four, Katy, Joe and Ian intercepted my clue. It was getting harder to think of a reference for “Cyclops” which had appeared in every round. Telescope, Forehead, Hades and Blinks were clues to date and then it came up again in round five. Sam clued all cinematic references: Speilberg for ET, Scorsese for Money and Harryhausen for Cyclops, which was better than any film reference that I could come up with: I’d been trying to remember who’d played the one-eyed giant in Krull since we’d started. But anyway, Sam’s clues were intercepted, and the game was done.

Joe, Katy, Ian: superspies

Adam, Sam, Andrew: superfluous

Then we split into two groups. Adam, Ian and Sam went off to conquer Planet Unknown while Katy, Joe and I played Luxury Ra. With these two games, there wasn’t a huge amount of table space left so it’s lucky we’d already eaten all the crisps.

This was my first time playing this copy of Ra and I was rightfully impressed by the tactile experience although my tactics didn’t improve. At least it was close, with Joe’s grip on the game continuing. All thanks to his sudden switch in round two to collecting pharaohs despite telling us earlier that he really wasn’t interested in them.

Joe 43

Katy 41

Andrew 36

Remarkably, Planet Unknown ended at the same time and they totted up the scores as Sam told us that he loved the solo version so much that he’d played it fifteen times.

Sam 44

Ian 43

Adam 40

Then it was all back together for a game of So Clover. Any dreams of 36 out of 36 were dashed early on. We cleared Sam’s clover fine but then stumbled on Katy’s clue for fire which I think was “lighter” and “traditional.” Then an unlucky mix up saw us fail with Ian’s even though I was pretty confident we were right.

I was so convinced we were right I took a photo

I’m relieved that my clover scored the maximum 6 points as they pretty quickly realised I’d misread “envelop” as “envelope.” But I feel genuine regret that we didn’t get Adam’s clever clue of “seawee’d” which is a punchline to the joke “Why did the sea blush?” and we guessed accordingly. Unfortunately he’d wanted to do “why did the tomato blush?” but he couldn’t remember it.

I think we got 29 out of 36. Sounds about right.

Then Katy, Adam and I went home. On the way back, Sam sent me this gem from their game of Not That Movie...

And Katy found a wall with a few odds and ends that she had to peruse.

Thanks all. See you soon.

Spy Power

 I arrived just in time to see the last couple of clues of Cross Clues being posed. Ian, Laura, Joe, Martin and host Sam did well for time but fell short of perfection, getting three or four wrong.

The six of us stayed together for a six-player game of Wandering Towers. This was my first attempt at this simple game, new to GNN last week, and I managed to put a meeple in the tower with my first move. But any notion that I might have had that this would be easy was soon dispelled – I wouldn’t get another meeple into the tower until after Ian neatly dropped his third guy into the castle, triggering the end of the game.

Laura was the last to play and she thought she could get her last meeple in the tower, if only she knew where it was. Her first card allowed her to move a tower. She chose a tower, hoping to see her third guy underneath. No joy. Such is Wandering Castles.

Ian 3

Sam 2 (and four filled potions)

Joe 2, Laura 2, Andrew 2, Martin 2

Then we split into two groups of three. Joe, Ian and Sam chose Switch The Signal, a co-op train game. Laura, Martin and I played an ancient classic, Web of Power. This was Laura’s first game and my first game for about ten years, so a rules explanation was duly doled out by Martin.

But Web of Power has a few quirks that kept tripping Laura up, such as only one cloister in a new territory and that the maximum number of advisors in a region is equal to the number of cloisters in that territory owned by leading player in that region.

I enjoyed it. It was nice to go back after all this time. I don’t think I did particularly well, apart from a move that annoyed Martin, robbing him of ten points. That was satisfying.

Martin 75

Andrew 58

Laura 48

I didn’t really follow Switch The Signal, apart from catching the phrase “he’s got an itchy bum now,” uttered by Sam. At the end of the game, they declared themselves winners but only after awarding themselves an extra turn which, according to the rules, shouldn’t have been given.

While they were finishing off Switch The Signal, Laura, Martin and I banged out a quick High Score. As Martin explained the rules he demonstrated with a number of successful dice rolls. He put his cube high up the score track while I argued that those were just examples and shouldn’t count. My logic wasn’t taken seriously but I needn’t have worried. A run of good results for me (in round four, I scored 32 while Martin scored 8) meant I went into the final round just needing to avoid going bust to win. I accepted my first legal roll and took first place in a close match.

Andrew 15

Martin 14

Laura 13

On the other half of the table Sam won a quick game of Spicy, having won two 10s which was the first time he’d ever done that, apparently.

Then Laura left and the five of us played Decrypto. Joe and I were a team and we got a miscommunication in our first round. Joe’s clue of “Pret a Porter” should have pointed me to “Pocket” but instead I thought “Porter” was a reference to portaloos, so I chose “toilet”.

But I made up for it, noticing that Sam’s clue of “Ant/Zebra” seemed to reference A-Z, eventually leading Joe and I to guess Dictionary for that word. We got an interception for our second white token and won the game. Interestingly, I think both teams were on the right track for most words, even though we’d only played three rounds. Clearly we are all out of practice.

Joe and Andrew, I spy with my little eye

Sam, Martin and Ian, Blind Man’s Buff

At this point I went home, leaving the remaining quartet to play Ghosts of Christmas.

Martin 16

Joe 16

Ian 3

Sam 2

Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you next week.

Snakes on a plan

This week I experienced the rare sight of an empty Discord server as, for a change, I was first to log in. Ian, Martin, Adam H and Katy joined me and we began a game of For Sale to entertain us until Andy B was expected in fifteen minutes or so.

Katy discovered that her newly mended internet (the one she has hand delivered by the postman every morning) didn't work at all. She played on her phone using 4G but she struggled with the tiny screen. "Is that a nine?" She asked before bidding. Despite all that hassle, she still didn't come last.

Martin 56

Andrew 52
Ian 51
Katy 46 (plus cash)
Adam 46

This result pushed my ELO rating for For Sale above 200 and for my efforts I got a slightly patronising message on-screen telling me I was a "good player".  Thanks BGA. I wonder if, should I drop below 200 some time later, I'll get another message telling me I'm a huge disappointment.

Katy left to solve her internet issues and Andy B did his usual performance of appearing and then disappearing before joining us for the evening. Six times this week.

We played 7 Wonders and Adam (whose ELO rating is above 200 and so must also be a "good player") went big on military and won.

Adam 59

Andy 56
Martin 53
Ian 43
Andrew 41

Katy, with internet fixed, came back during this game and said it was quite relaxing just being a spectator.  The six of us played Fuji Flush and enjoyed the short lived alliances and swift treacheries that this game encourages.

Andy won, while me and Martin were on their last card. Don't know about the other three.

Then Sam arrived and we split into two. Sam, Martin, Ian and Katy went off and played Decrypto. Adam, Andy and I tried out Alhambra, one of many old familiars now arriving on BGA in beta, ready to be playtested.

It worked well online, except it was a faff to scroll up and down to see what your opponents are doing.  I forgot any strategy I might have once known and came a distant last. 

Adam 156
Andy 125
Andrew 99

At this point I had to chop some vegetables for my girlfriend and when I came back, everyone was in the same Google Hangout, discussing what to play next. Everyone but Sam, that is, who must have decided to bail early.

I suspect that I was muted from this point on, since no one responded to anything I said. Then again, I didn't say anything worth responding to, so I couldn't say for sure.

First we chose Incan Gold as a fun party game we can all play together. But only if turning over cards illustrating deadly objects is your idea of fun. Martin (whose ELO in this game is zero) broke the habit of a lifetime and left the first temple early. It was to be the only points he scored all game. 

Round two was swift and brutal: spider, snake, snake. And then round three was cruel to anyone playing the odds of snakes being less likely to come out: 3 gems, snake, snake. Round four was only marginally nicer: rocks, spider, artefact,  rocks. Ian nabbed the artefact but it wasn't enough to overtake Andy who'd stayed in longest in round one and got 15 gems all to himself.

Andy 28
Ian 17
Adam 6
Andrew 4
Martin 3
Katy 2

"That was bullshit," declared Katy. And a few minutes later, she'd be insisting "This is bullshit," as we ended with 6nimmt. Katy crashed out early and then picked up a high scoring row, just so she'd go out in style. This unpredictable strategy appalled Martin who said it was "worse than going Dirk". 

Adam 65
Andy 56
Martin 49
Ian 22
Andrew 22
Katy -20

And so we were done. Another night older but certainly no wiser. Thanks all, see you next week.

I’m overlooking a four-leaf clover

I arrived late and watched the second half of a game of Lucky numbers while sorting out my drinks. Ian was first to get to his last tile, but luck was against him and he couldn't place that final one, allowing enough time for Andy to catch up and steal a win.

In the end of game statistics Sam discovered he had seven minutes thinking time, which he was appalled by until he remembered that included the rules explanation.

Next up was Decrypto, the latest board game to be given an online presence with a .io domain. The site was functional and pretty boring, but it seemed to work fine, barring some peculiar word choices. We had "Wriggler" among our code words. Sam and Martin teamed up together "for old times' sake" and Ian, Andy and me made up the other team.

I can't say I was completely up to speed with the game. We got a miscommunication in round one before we fluked an interception in round two by simply guessing 1, 2, 3. Martin and Sam used clever clues to avoid any miscommunication and then used logic to intercept us in round two as well. Finally, after some very literal clues from ourselves, Martin and Sam got the second interception in round three, making this perhaps the shortest game of Decrypto I've played.

Sam and Martin, double agents

Ian, Andy, Andrew, halfwits

Next we played 7 Wonders. Usually this is Ian's strong suit but this time he was predicting his failure early on.

Andy insisted his wonder forced him to go big on military (because otherwise he’s such a peac-loving opponent). Sam finished fourth after being convinced he was in the running

Andy 66

Martin 58

Andrew 53 (+ cash)

Sam 53

Ian 45

Next up was For Sale and we began with the worst 9 ever: pick it up for free and allow everyone else to help themselves to 20+ cards. In the second half of the game Andy charitably picked up both zeroes.

Martin 57

Ian 54

Andrew 53

Sam 48

Andy 43

Now Sam left and Ian was on the verge of departing too, suggesting a short game as his finale. We chose Kingdomino and watched in amazement as Ian built a 60+ point forest. Martin’s lake couldn’t compare.

Ian 85

Martin 72

Andy 56

Andrew 49

Ian’s win seemed to give him a second win, as he deferred sleep in favour of a game of Downforce. Despite being a speedy one-lap race, I was able to make my bed during the downtime between my turns. Martin won the race but Andy bet on him so he won the game.

Andy 21

Martin 15

Andrew 14 (+ cash)

Ian 14

Now Ian finally retired and the remaining three played Lucky Numbers. Andy won again. But, mind you, he had a 3-20 spread early on while I began with numbers on my board ranging from 3-11. I never stood a chance (is my excuse).

And thus we were done. Thanks all.

Tricked into Space

Tuesday, and chez Joe's alongside the host sat Katy, Martin and myself (Sam) with Steve on the way. Unusually both Andrew and Ian were missing! Instead I took blogging duties and Steve provided the fatalism.

Martin's return from Eastbourne signified an influx of Essen-smuggled games in his bag, and first onto the table was Hurlyburly. This is something like a cross between Rhino Hero and Castle Crush - everyone is building their own tower a la the former, but trying to knock each other's constructions down like the latter - only with catapults!

The home-spun components smacked of an enthusiast's labour of love, and apparently the designers are father and daughter. Very sweet! The game itself - not so sweet. But a lot of fun. On your turn you can add sandbags, take blocks, construct more levels (fast for height or strong for sturdy) - or attack. As the winner is the player who has a four-level tower at the start of their turn, it's beholden on everyone to attack each other when that threat becomes imminent. Like Joe did to Martin here:

You can also improve your catapult. This is rather key, as the starting catapult is pretty flimsy and reaching the other side of the table with it is a bit of an ask. But when you slide in extra layers of card for rigidity, suddenly your blocks can go that much further.

We liked it so much we played twice - Katy won the first game, and Joe the second.

By that time Steve had arrived, so without a great amount of further ado - one day, Tulip Bubble! - we settled on Decrypto. Katy was markedly suspicious of this choice as she remembered being too far away from the pad the last time she played. Martin suggested moving nearer. Katy narrowed her eyes, and joined Steve and I as we faced off against Martin and Joe.

It's definitely an advantage having two guessers on a team instead of one - spotting links (as Steve did) that someone else (me) might have missed entirely. But you wouldn't have known it at the start of the game as for three rounds we were completely foxed trying to find any meaning at all. Worse, it seemed like they were onto us. 

But then we had an inkling of one word (Picnic) and made a somewhat fortunate interception. We cashed in our laser tokens, identified picnic and won! What's more we were very close on two other words as well - we'd actually written Garden and Breakfast on our pad. Joe and Martin had worked out word 2 (Dance) but were otherwise stumped.

Katy, Steve, Sam - Decrypto!

Martin and Joe - Decrepto

The most notable part of Decrypto wasn't actually the guessing though, but Joe insisting that the word crap was onomatopoeic. We wondered what he'd been eating.

Next up was Die Crew, the trick-taking game of co-operative space exploration. We played the first Mission again to introduce the mechanics to Katy and Steve. Katy picked things up quickly, but Steve was bewildered. He told us we should continue the mission because that was his default state anyway. We liked that do-or-die attitude, and played several more rounds, taking three attempts at Mission 8 before we succeeded. "There's over fifty missions!" Martin exclaimed, perhaps marvelling at our ineptitude. Mission 8 is hard though.

Steve and I were keen for a different flavour of game so we played LAMA. For whatever reason whenever a Llama was played the active player would pipe "Llama" as though we were playing reverse bingo. Steve started rather badly, and things got worse when Martin and I dropped out of round two and he, Joe and Katy just kept picking up cards...

Then I had a hand of high cards and kept picking up more, pushing me into last place. But Joe played like a pro and wrapped things up when Katy fell apart in successive rounds to trigger the end:

Joe 6
Martin 12
Steve 30
Sam 35
Katy 46

After we packed LAMA away Joe told a story about being in the sauna which I now don't recollect the details of, and Katy called a leftover card a 'wanker', leading to a discussion about when cards should or shouldn't be sleeved. The details are probably all best lost though.

Despite the encroaching late hour, For Sale was quickly voted as the next game. It was a game of strange displays, with opening bidding cards tableaus having all high cards and then the final one all low except for the 30. Everyone picked things up cheaply, and there was a surprising lack of teeth-gnashing. In a tight game, Martin ran out the winner:

Martin 60
Katy 55
Joe 50
Steve 49
Sam 46

Before we wrapped things up with Just One, playing our house rule of guessing eliminated (duplicate) clues if the guesser guesses correctly. We ran into trouble with Katy's word being Muse (I only understood my own clue for that one) but did rather well overall, with our variant rule making up for any failures - we scored a 'perfect' 13, but the house rule does need its own separate scoring system really as theoretically you could score 26 points with it.

In the meantime, that was that! I didn't take photos of Just One, but here's a plastic bull.

See you Next Tuesday

It was a night full of the sounds of distant fireworks from many locations and I walked to Joe's wondering if this is what a war zone sounded like.

Joining me at Joe's, apart from the host, were Katy, Ian, Sam, Martin and Adam T. We started with a little conversation where Martin reminded us of Katy's use of the c-word in his birthday card. She insisted that she wrote that he wasn't a c-word and, besides, she had been under a lot of pressure to write something witty. Martin suggested some kind of code like… C U Next Tuesday. On saying that, we realised that we had been saying See you next Tuesday to each other for nine years. What kind of subliminal messages have we been giving out?

Talking of subliminal messages, our first game was Decrypto with the Laser Disc expansion. Martin, Adam, Joe and Katy faced off against Ian, Sam and I.

In this version of the game, a card drawn from a deck will give a category (famous people, cities, etc) to which at least one of the clues must belong. And if you are able to make all three fit, then you get a laser disc. Collect two and you can use them to guess one of your opponents' words.

This new variant was warmly welcomed by Martin who, on his first round, got a laser disc by having all clues relate to a living celebrity. Then Joe also got a laser disc. By now they had two, but no idea of any of our words. Adam was told not to bother trying for a laser disc. "Don't try to be too flash," was Martin's (unintentional?) pun. But Adam is a proud gamer and if they could do it, so could he. And he did. And he supplied chocolate cake as well. Pity you don't get points for generosity in Decrypto.

On our side, we didn't bother trying to get all three and when we did, we got a miscommunication both times. As such the game finished on round five, delicately poised. We had two miscommunications and two interceptions. They had one of each. It was down to the laser discs. If we could guess a word and they couldn't, we would score an unlikely win.

We correctly got our confident guess (Jack Black plus sponge pudding plus recorder equals School) but then they worked out one of our words at the last minute (runny egg plus Venice plus cold equals Water) and they prevailed.

Katy, Joe, Martin, Adam: piece of cake.
Sam, Ian, Andrew: oh, crumbs.

Then we split into two groups. Martin, Joe, Adam and Sam played Die Crew. But that "die" is the German definite article, not the English exhortation that someone end their life. Ian, Katy and I were remarkably quick (by our standards) to choose Senators as our entertainment.

Oddly, the four-player group decamped to the card table while the three-player game had the whole kitchen table to itself. I heard Martin describe Die Crew as "a mission based co-operative trick-taking game" to which one wit replied "What? Another one?" I know little about it except for getting a yellow five to Joe became very important at one point.

After they played for a while, they were faced with a dilemma. When to stop? The game had another 40+ missions. Should they keep going and head for the moon or try something different? Joe was keen to play Sigma File and after some discussion, they did just that. The moon would have to wait.

Meanwhile, in Senators, it was a ding dong battle. I sped off into an early lead by cashing in a 7-8-9 combo and bought several senators. Then Katy made the running, building up an insurmountable lead mid game but then Ian used Consuls to take points from her and, in one move where he gained four senators, overhaul her. The third war had passed and Katy was desperately holding onto an office card before she cashed in, paying off two extortion attempts by selling a senator, putting her temporarily into last place.

But temporary became permanent when she turned over the next card to find the fourth war. No chance to cash in and she finished in last place.

Ian 16
Andrew 12
Katy 11

After this, I suggested No Thanks. Katy insisted she was terrible and I assured her she can't be worse than me. Ian kept quiet, perhaps not wanting to seem over confident. I started off by picking up the 33, hoping for lots more cards in the thirties that I could milk for coins, but none came out. Not one.

Katy 53
Ian 55
Andrew 101

By this time, Sigma File was ending, with Sam the winner (“I went heavy on Bruno,” he explained) but apart from that, I know very little.

Then they began a game of Cartographers, even going so far as to sharpen their pencils first.

We three never saw the end of that game. We played a game of Las Vegas during which Ian mostly texted and I took a call in round two, much to Katy’s disgust.

Andrew $410,000
Katy $260,000
Ian $240,000

After this, Ian had to go and, frankly, after last week’s midnight finish both Katy and I were keen to finish early. Cartographers was still in full swing so we decided to pack up and leave. We set off at a refreshingly early half past ten, looking forward to an early night.

Except, soon after Katy and I parted, I realised my phone was still at Joe’s. I turned around and ran back to Joe’s house and got there just as Adam was leaving. I soon found my phone and turned down their kind offer of another game, so tired and sweaty that I really needed an early night now. But I was there long enough to hear Sam refer to the game Startups as “Breadsticks” just because he was looking at some while he described it to Martin.

Sam texted me the scores later.

Cartographers:
Martin 100
Adam 95
Sam 84
Joe 73

Startups:
Sam 3
Joe 1
Martin 0

But I finally got home at the usual post-games night time. At least I had my phone. Now it’s all downhill to the games weekend! Woo hoo!

Creating a Stinker

I arrived late to Joe's for this week's games night and found that the decision as to what game I wanted to play had already been made for me. I was to join Adam T and Martin in a game of Impulse while Katy, Joe and Ian broke out Quest for El Dorado.

It had been a while since I played Impulse but no rules refresher was needed. I did refer to the player aid a couple of times, though. Katy, on the other hand, needed a full rules explanation prompting a couple of us to ask if it was her first game. (She said it wasn't but the last time had been about two years ago.)

Impulse was cagey at first and rather benign, apart from Martin sending a cruiser through Adam's Space Quadrant (possibly not officially terminology) and knocking out a couple of transporters on the way. But Martin's trading strategy started to generate points so when he hit 18, just two from a win, my full compliment of ships leapt into battle, knocking out three of his ships and removing him from the sector core. Then Adam sprang into action, with an extensive move plus plan that got him to 19 points but no further. Martin had the Impulse equivalent of a tap in to take the win.

Martin 20
Adam 19
Andrew 14

In El Dorado, Ian began very slowly but, once he’d scratched his foot (he even needed to take his shoe off) he was back in contention. Joe ploughed through the barriers while Katy sneaked along behind him. In the end, Joe got stuck on the last tile, allowing both Katy and Ian to reach the goal. Katy won the tie-breaker with a single barrier to Ian’s none.

Katy, first!
Ian, second
Joe, last

We ended more or less at the same time, so we dug out Decrypto as our next game. To avoid moving chairs and having to make up a team name, we decided on Team Impusle versus Team Dorado. Team Impulse had a tricky selection of words, all seemed to be thematically linked to food: leg, game, pizza and restaurant. Those last two, especially, looked difficult. I thought about asking if we could swap one out but Martin said he thought we’d be fine and I didn’t push the matter in case I looked like a sissy.

I usually take a photo of the clue sheets to remind me of how clever we were but I forgot. Martin and I misunderstood Adam’s clue of “face” thinking it went with Game when it should have gone with Pizza (or vice versa). Luckily Team Dorado got their second miscommunication in round six and my clues-as-a-story technique got us through that round safely.

Team Impulse, MI5 secret service
Team Dorado, M5 motorway

Next we introduced Ian and Adam to the unique thrills of Stinker. This time, it seemed to take a while for us to get going, so we went around twice. And we kept score, just to see if it was a pointless as it first appeared. I came up with this for “What do humans think most about.”

It was supposed to be “Darleen from Roseanne”, but Neighbours just seemed easier to spell, given my meagre resources. And then, after a whole six rounds of trying to be clever, Katy finally won something with “ooh a oo ah ah” which was something about what you should say to Sigmund Freud.

Andrew 50
Martin 32
Ian 16
Joe 13
Adam 13
Katy 11

What a shame it’s too fast moving for extensive notes because the second round saw a return to the heights of hilarity. I wrote “It is veri wonki” for something that a Pyramid-building slave might say and that's about it.

But with that, we were done.

EDIT: Except for a game of Heul Doch Mau Mau, after Ian and Adam had gone. I don't remember it at all and if it weren't for Martin reminding me in the comments, it may have gone unnoticed by history.

Martin 77
Katy 72
Andrew 69
Joe 44

After more fun than is recommended by the World Health Organisation, we tottered back home and to bed. Next week, though, summer hols finally take their toll. With Sam still away and Joe absent too, who knows where the determined vacation-less few with find themselves?

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.