Chippencon!

Friday

With Paul J the quiet instigator of the idea, the old London branch of GNN coalesced this weekend at Chris's house in Chippenham: as well as the host, Paul J and myself there was Paul H for the duration, Stuart on Friday night and then Andrew on Saturday. 

But all this was ahead of us as I arrived at midday on Friday and after catching up with Jacquie and the kids, Chris and I shot off to collect Paul J from the station. Then after a second-wave newsbeat, we started gaming! We kicked things off with Babylonia, new to both Paul and Chris but a relatively easy teach. 

We played slightly too open, having the full board instead of the slightly condensed one for three, but that made it an easier learning game:

Sam 149

Chris 147

Paul 99

And now familiar with it, both were enthusiastic for another crack.

My long and arduous master-and-apprentice defeats at the hands of Martin stood me in good stead once more:

Sam 123

Paul 99

Chris 96

Lovely to find two more converts! We moved on to Sushi Go, the game of card-drafting Japanese foodstuffs. Owing to a misunderstanding over chopsticks, I ruled myself out of contention after round one, but it's not exactly a grind.

Paul 72

Chris 59

Sam 46

 Paul began a four-game winning run here, following his Sushi Go triumph with victories in Alhambra:

Kingdomino...

And Kingdom Builder.

Chris was appalled to finish third in every instance, voicing aloud his regret at the very idea of Chippencon. Things didn't improve immediately for him when Paul H arrived, as we kicked off with Tournament Raj and despite a huge last-round haul, he still finished last. Paul J and I slugged it out for first place, but he shrugged me off to claim a fifth victory in a row!

Paul J 60

Sam 51

Paul 45

Chris 33

With tea consumed - thank you Chris and Jacquie - and Stuart freshly arrived, we fancied something a bit feistier now, and so I talked them through the rules of Hansa Teutonica. 

Despite my encouragements to get sabotaging. everyone was very polite at the start and the first couple of rounds were slightly after-you-sir. But soon enough we were getting in each other's way and the cussing ramped up slightly. The initial sense of being hobbled by two actions fell away as we proliferated across the board and engines kicked into gear. 

After an hour of cross-postal interference, Stuart leapt from an innocuous fourth place into joint first with Chris, and I couldn't quite catch them. We checked the rules for a tie-breaker and Chris' fewer actions-per-turn won him the game!

Chris 38 wins tiebreaker 

Stuart 38

Sam 37

Paul H 29

Paul J 25

Now into the meat of the evening, we debated our five-player options. Paul J was understandably reluctant to learn another set of rules at this point, so we alighted on Istanbul, needing a mostly-fringe-area refreshment on rules. I forgot to take any photos at this point, but suffice to say Paul H was now warmed-up and moved through the gears to wrap up a relatively straightforward win, grabbing his fifth gem with the rest of us at least two turns away from doing likewise:

Paul H five gems!!!!

Sam  4 gems 31 cash 

Paul J 4 gems 6 cash

Stuart 4 gems 1 cash 

Chris 3 gems 13 cash 

The hour was getting late so with the request for something 'silly' I suggested Block Party.

Although this meant another set of rules, the fact they only take about 45 seconds to explain meant we were off and running quickly. And Chris made a banana. 

"I tried to bend it" he cried, but it mattered not: Stuart identified it. I guessed Paul H's spider and he saw the fire engine in my creation. We all ran the highs and lows of emotions - my milk bottle was alleged to be a snowman, a mountain, and an igloo - but ultimately the last game of the night saw Chris triumph:

Chris 11

Sam 10

Paul and Paul 8

Stuart 7

Saturday

I surfaced at around 8.15 to an extremely muggy day. We threw opens doors and windows to try and get some air into the house. Chester enjoyed having all these access points to the house. 

As well as the visiting articles to investigate. 

After breakfast, Jacquie liked the idea of trying out Block Party, so we did. Despite some creative performance anxiety, her debut creation was this beautiful pineapple:

However despite a frankly shambolic attempt at a door (in dubious colour choices of grey and pink) Chris triumphed again. I lost track of where Jacquie, Paul J and I finished.

Apart from that intense Block Party workout it was a fairly lazy morning. Paul H returned at 11am and while Chris prepped the chilli for later, he talked Paul J and I through the workings of Imhotep.

I think I played this about eight years ago, and I found it's piece-of-string machinations just as opaque this time, as players choose whether to add cubes to boats, or sail a full-enough boat to one of several possible destinations. It's fun, but I am really awful at judging anything being a good decision, and my focus on building a massive Burial Chamber didn't match up to the canny shenanigans of the Pauls, with Paul J claiming a debut victory!

Paul J 49

Paul H 41

Sam 39

Then with Chris back at the table, we returned to Babylonia. 

This was a corker, as leads between the Pauls and Chris ebbed and flowed whilst I languished back on a measly five points, hoping to draw enough farmers to use my ziggurat power. They didn't arrive and I had to focus my efforts building a central network that Chris spotted was going to haul me in some juicy points when they started paying out. I agreed, but I didn't think I'd close the now huge gap between Paul J (at this point) on something like 110 while I was back in the 30's somewhere. But as it turned out, it was damn close!

Chris 138

Sam 136

Paul J 130

Paul H 107

A baptism of fire for Paul H, then, but the next game - after our classic Lunch of Beige - was one he knew intimately: Eclipse! 

This was Chris's second-edition version, with some minor rules modifications (and one less round) and some faction asymmetry, but largely the same narrative: early rounds are developing tech and kitting out ships, building towards a massive bunfight at the end. Except here the bunfight never really materialised: Paul H and I established an alliance, and Chris and Paul J did the same.  Chris considered attacking Paul H, but decided against it because it looked like a death wish.

My dreams of peaceful expansion were undone by poor planning and ill fortune and I spent a few rounds only doing two actions and then passing early. The others expanded more successfully and built monstrously-violent death machines of the cosmos in a sort of cardboard cold war.

Then at the death Chris attacked the central hex and quickly reenforced his dominance there. He tried to take some hexes off me but didn't roll what he needed and we all eyed him warily. Oddly, his aggression went unrewarded in the sense of point-scoring, with Paul H's 'In Bed With the Ancients' faction grabbing victory:

Paul H 33

Paul J and Sam 32 each

Chris 30

Though it was certainly not a damp squib, I didn't enjoy Eclipse as much as I used to. It's a long haul to get to the more-exciting finale (caveat: my adjacency to that was more my fault than the games') and at times it feels a bit like a slightly protracted drum-roll. There's a lot to consider as well, and if it's a more elegant construction than Xia's everything-by-dice, it doesn't feel as stupidly fun. 

Speaking of dice, though, next up - after the very delicious chilli, and a quick sortie to the shops - was Las Vegas. It's not a game that supplies quite the epic narrative Eclipse does, but it was a nice pallet-cleanser:

Sam $510k

Paul J $470

Chris $380

Paul H $280

We knew Andrew was imminent, but just had enough time for another four-hander in the little-seen (by me at least) Timeline! I couldn't help but notice a seam of dark comedy in the images, with a number of characters looking vaguely psychotic.

Paul H won this. I discovered the refrigerator was invented much earlier than I'd anticipated, but now with crushing inevitability the exact year escapes me.

Paul H wins

Sam and Paul J 1 card

Chris 2 cards 

Andrew arrived just as we finished and after the briefest of catch-ups the discussion of what to play as a five began. Dominant Species? A bit long. Twilight Imperium? Very long. Istanbul? A bit short. We settled on Lords of Waterdeep. With no Martin or Ian present I elected to play green, so the colour/game combo made it feel a bit like 2010, as Prince used to sing.

Early on it was fairly even - I shot off on the scoretrack to 32 but had a bunch of skulls that made my actual score a current 14. Paul H pulled ahead and played some dastardly intrigue that balanced out revealing his Lord with the fact we couldn't target him all game. That was a bummer. Meanwhile I pulled ahead again, and Chris targeted me with one of those bastard mandatory quests that I'm definitely not still sore about. Andrew mostly chuckled at the names of the quests.

Incredible scenes at the end as Paul H pulled so far ahead it was almost embarrassing. My late game recovery wasn't enough to catch a resurgent Chris, and a briefly-dominant Paul J found Andrew had enough to sneak past him in the final count.

Paul H 166

Chris 148

Sam 144

Andrew 134

Paul J 131

After twelve hours of gaming I suddenly got hit by an ocular migraine, and had to play my final game (Incan Gold) with my eyes largely closed and Chris communicating events to me ("Zombie Lady!"). Paul J and Chris lacked our frugal conservatism and, falling behind, risked life and limb - and ultimately lost life and limbs - in wild attempts to recover.

In the end, however, it was Paul H who took yet another win!

PH 34

Andrew 32

Sam 26

Chris 20

PJ 0

And at this point, with my vision no better, I had to take myself to a dark room. It was a bit of a underwhelming way to end Chippencon and I was gutted to miss Chris and Andrew take on the Pauls in Decrypto! The Pauls won, though what the words and dramas were maybe we'll learn in the comments.

Thanks to Chris Jacquie and kids for putting up with us all, and everyone attending for making it fun.  

Two-Headed Beasts

On Friday Chris and I (Sam) met for some gentle two player-games whilst Ashton and Stan zoomed around the house on hoverboards, making beeping noises and throwing a bouncy ball at each other.

"Does that bother you?" I asked Chris. 

"To be honest, I hadn't noticed" he said. 

Chris hadn't noticed partly because after introducing him to the magic of Cross Clues, we'd gone for the not-usually-2-player space battle of Eclipse. 

Eclipse is engineered to push players towards each other geographically and aggressively. With 3 or more there are extra layers of tactical thinking and nuance to play. With two, it's much simpler, although the goals are still the same - you score points for territories, developed tech, and prowess (or even lack of prowess!) in battle. Chris and I started either side of the galaxy's centre, but had very different experiences. My exploration found lowly, unoccupied worlds, waiting for pink habitation. As a result I built an economy swiftly, whereas Chris found himself beset by The Ancients, hostile forces bent on - not unreasonably - hanging on to the last vestiges of their civilisations. 

Mid-game I felt comfortable - I was taking more actions than Chris and calmly spreading tendrils across the galaxy. But Chris used what little flex he had to arm his ships to a degree I think it's fair to call 'fucking nuts' and when the endgame arrived, the classic battle-for-the-centre wasn't enticing me in.

We had similar numbers, but Chris's firepower dwarfed mine. Instead of contesting such a long-odds battle, I branched off to explore - but made a catastrophic error: throwing two ships into the centre 'for fun' - they had such a slim chance of success, it was basically to have another punch-up. But although Chris had no actions left, he could still react: and swiftly moved into the perilously ill-defended hex I'd left behind. There was no return!

Chris 36

Sam 31

We moved back to terra-ferma for a crack at Rajas of the Ganges, where I attempted a small measure of revenge. For those unfamiliar, the terrifying-looking board disguises a really simple worker-placement game, where workers combine with dice.

Each player's goal is to build their Raja's palace - on a separate board - by paying for tiles to place there. The USP with Rajas is that tiles score in two different ways (cash and fame) and these currencies are tracked around the board: but going in different directions. Your goal is to get the two markers to pass each other. 

The last time I'd played Andrew had totally schooled me, so I copied his fame-heavy strategy as Chris built numerous markets and coined in the cash. The catch with the market route is that for every space the fame marker moves, the money marker needs to move twice for equivalence. I thought I might have run out of steam as Chris, in the last round, suddenly sprang up the track at terrifying velocity - but I held on for the win. 

Sam - Raja

Chris - Raja not

There was just time for another blast at Cross Clues...

Before we called it a night. But what a night it was - Chris' mad cat Daisy decided to start mewing at 3am outside my door and opening the door seemed to upset her even more. Chris found a bed for me away from the noise, but I was now neurotically wide-awake and remained so until around 5. I wouldn't have mentioned it all, except for the fact on Saturday night I had a date with Martin, Joe and Katy for...

DOPPELKOPF

Martin had been playing this partnership trick-taker online a lot and wanted to try it in the room, so the three of us signed up to experience it's unique charms. As trick-takers go, it's quite long (2 hours!) and also - even for a game genre that positively bubbles with unusual twists - kinda bonkers. The game can be played with a standard deck (or decks plural, actually) of cards, but thank God Martin had the bespoke deck: without it, we would have definitely struggled!

Although each round - usually - sees players establish temporary partnerships, the game is won and lost individually. The lowest card is a nine, and a ten is higher than a king, so the suits run from ace down:

Ace - Ten - King - Queen - Jack - Nine. 

But forget suits for a moment because over half the deck are actually trumps, and for the trump suit you - usually - ignore the standard suit on the card entirely. There are also two of every card, with - should duplicates be played in the same round - the earlier breaking ties. Most of the cards are also worth points (point values between 2 and 11, thankfully also printed on the cards) and the partnership that claims the most points wins the round. 

But when (all) the cards are first dealt, players don't actually know who they'll partner with initially. The Re partnership is determined by the players holding the two Queens of Spades Clubs (the 19 trumps) and the Kontra whoever isn't. If one player is dealt both queens, they can announce they need a 'marriage' and the first non-queen player to win a trick is the Re partner. Unless someone decides to play... solo!

The three jacks, ten of diamonds and king of diamonds are all actually trumps (gold circle)

Point values appear halfway down the cards. The non-gold values under the spades, hearts 

and clubs are their trump value in case they become trumps. I think. 

A full game of Doppelkopf takes 16 rounds, but every player must at least once play a round solo. When this happens, they choose from a smorgasboard of solo parameters: same rules as partnership, but swap out one 'trump' suit for a 'non-trump' suit? No trumps at all? Only queens are trump, or only jacks? The solo rules sometimes make things simpler, but the swapping of suits - in a game where some suited cards are trumps (and therefore not the standard suit on them) and some matching suited cards aren't, sent all of us tumbling into a pit of continuous confusion!

Apart from that, the basic rules of Doppelkopf came into focus reasonably quickly. But wait! There are numerous additional flourishes - pages of them on wikipedia, apparently - and we mixed in a few. A standard round is worth a point, but possibly more if it's a big win, and more still if the winners (or indeed losers) announce it ahead of time. Winning a hand of tens and aces is a doppelkopf: bonus point! Winning the (trump) ace of diamonds (the Fox!) from an opponent is worth an additional point. Winning the Jack of Spades - Charlie Miller - in the final round is an additional point. These various points, when the planets align, can accrue spectacularly: Martin and I both got seven points for a single round at one stage, as the Kontras looked on at the disaster playing out forlornly. 

Joe sank to minus 13 points at one stage, whereas as Katy and I lingered around the zero mark, Martin surged ahead to a dozen or so points. He assured us all that the points could easily swing back the other way - nobody believed him, though. Until they did. 

I have to confess I made a couple of left-field moves that came off more by luck than judgement, dumping a valuable club in order to be free of clubs and finding it went to my - then unknown - partner. Often in Doppelkopf though momentum seems to swing with earlier trick-winners falling away. This is no more pronounced than in the solo rounds, where Joe, Martin and I all failed to win, but Katy pulled it off with some aplomb. With 11 o'clock looming we took the decision to cap the game at 12 rounds instead of 16 - perhaps prompted by my yawning, although I was enjoying the game - and Martin and Joe were forced to play the last two rounds as their solos. Both were disasters, which helped push both myself and Katy past Martin into first and second. Joe, who seemed to be regularly harpooned by fate, was still stuck on minus 13 points. But as Martin pointed out, since the halfway point his haul of zero was considerably better than Martin's own, as he was belatedly hit by explainer's curse. 

Sam 9/ Katy 3/ Martin 1/ Joe -13

We finished off with the current nightcap de rigeur of Cross Clues, then called it a night. Thanks to Daisy, I could barely remember the last hour of the evening, but at least I slept ten hours. I'd like to play Doppelkopf again as well - it was kinda nuts, but sort of alluringly so...

Counting Cows

This Saturday meeting was initially organised as a chance to really get to grips with Great Western Trail, a recent acquisition of Sam’s that promises 150 minutes of playing time, according to BGG. So it was no surprised to find GWT already set up, with Joe sitting beside it having already reserved his place, along with Sam. Matt was the third player, preferring cattle trading to the epic space adventure being organised on the other half of the table.

Apologies for the fuzziness.

Camera lens is damaged.

Chris, Ian and I chose Eclipse as our Saturday epic, going for an all alien battle against upgraded ancients. I ended up going for my usual Swarm of Wasps tactic, only because Interceptors were cheap, and resources were in short supply. Chris was cash-rich, but went through the whole game with very little in the way of building resources. He could hardly ever build more than one ship per round. Oh, but what ships they were, bristling with advanced tech and improved hulls. He also ignored aliens in his own sector, preferring instead to head towards the centre. Ian, too, had ships stuffed with hulls and +2 and –2 die-adjusting computers, but weaker weapons.

As is usual in Eclipse, the final round played out with everyone piling into the centre, currently controlled by Chris. I put my interceptors in first, not as a serious challenge, but simply to pin his ships down so he couldn’t invade. Then Ian decided to join in too.

After this, there was a lot of cagey attacking around the perifery. Ian invaded me, just so I couldn’t invade him. Chris explored a sector, hoping for a route to me, but found only ancients (which I then attacked and beat) and finally Chris attacked and defeated Ian’s home planet. Oh, the humiliation!

Chris 38
Andrew 28
Ian 26

Since Great Western Trail hadn’t finished, we quickly whipped off a game of Love Letter.

Chris 3
Ian 2
Andrew 1

Finally, Great Western Trail had ended, with the scores at:

Sam 116
Matt 97
Joe 73

Although Sam said he’d inadvertently cheated. He didn’t go into details (with a game like GWT, that might have taken a good few minutes) but we salute his honesty.

Then we went to the chip shop, except for Joe and Chris who stayed behind and played a card game that looked like Race For The Galaxy. I didn’t note the score, but I think that Chris won.

After food, while we waited for our last arrival, Katy, we played Fuji Flush.

Andrew/Chris 0 cards left
Matt/Joe/Ian/Sam 2

And when this was over, Katy was here and we split into two groups: the foursome of Chris, Ian, Joe and Katy went for the high tension of Ponzi Scheme. The remaining trio chose A Feast For Odin.

It was Matt’s first play of Odin, but the rules aren’t difficult, just remembering what some of the iconography means and how the options should go together for best results.

I decided to simply ignore most bonuses on my player mat, preferring instead to build over them. I regretted this when I saw Sam’s use of the bonuses on his player mat and the Faroe Islands net him an increasingly impressive haul each round.

I think this game was the first time that the grey tiles from the oval bit of the board (I forget its proper name) were extensively used, with Matt and Sam buying stuff there regularly, and even I nabbed a couple of things late on. Buildings, too, were built by Matt and I. Meanwhile, I don’t remember Sam playing a single occupation card. He didn’t need to.

Sam 109
Matt 62
Andrew 59

By the time we’d finished, Ponzi Scheme was long over, with Katy being the sole survivor as you might expect since she confidently predicted her imminent demise mid-game.

Katy 19
everyone else went bankrupt

They filled in the time while we finished our final round by playing Vegas

Chris 500
Joe 360
Katy 280
Ian 260

And, post-Odin, we trotted out No Thanks, with Matt’s clever choice of high cards meaning he only had one run of cards in front of him by the end, compared to Sam’s and my three or four. Maybe five, in my case.

Matt 31
Sam 39
Andrew 67

After this it was just past ten, but I seemed to be the only one winding down. I had to turn down Matt’s offer of a game I’d never played before in favour of Dead Man’s Chest, about which Katy observantly noted “the best bit about losing is that you get to play.” Honest Joe did well just by telling the truth, until he lied and got caught out.

1. Sam
2. Katy
3. Joe
4. Chris
5. Andrew
6. Matt
7. Ian

After that, there were a few rounds of Spyfall. Sam, as the spy, guessed the first location after only two questions. Then Joe was too honest, and his inability to keep a straight face swiftly got him collared as the spy. This was followed by another round where Joe was the spy, and he got so close to winning, with the old Polar Station/Space Station confusion.

After this, Joe tried to accuse Chris based on the fact that Chris was perusing the list of locations in a suspicious manner. No one agreed, though. Sam was the spy then, but he didn't guess the location.

Finally, we all accused Matt when he asked an odd question, but it wasn't him, it was Ian. Matt explained that he was also asking questions according to the role he was playing, not just answering. We'd never thought of playing it that way. Spyfall Extreme, anyone?

After this, Chris and I left – I was so keen to get to bed that I dashed out without my notes or a beer. How lackadaisical of me.

Once I'd gone, the remaining gamers launched into a little Cube Quest Tournament. Sam texted me the scores and notes.

Matt beat Sam when Sam flicked his own king off the board.
Ian beat Katy with a long shot.
Joe beat Matt with “Hari Kiri” method.
Katy beat Sam “early doors”.
Ian beat Joe in an epic

Thus ended the weekend. Thanks all. Good to get some epics undertaken. See you guys on Tuesday.

Spring forward, Fall Back

The night of the spring equinox rolled around, and in the Morrison household myself, Ian, Stanley and Little Joe rolled our way to glory/defeat in Las Vegas. We were expecting Andrew any moment, but he'd assumed an 8pm start and was at home putting his hair on.

 Stan's domain

Ian and Stan played solo; Joe and I were a team with Joe designated dice roller. We played a game of hedge-betting, whilst on the other side of the table things were more dynamic. Dynamism paid off - or it did for Stan, anyway:

Stanley $210,000
Sam and Joe $120,000
Ian $40,000

The boys went upstairs to read, and Ian and I almost played Quoridor. But then we realised that with Andrew texting his agreement to Eclipse, we had better start setting the game up.

Andrew arrived and space conquest began. Ian explored in search of peaceful lands, but found hostiles. Andrew went for his wasp strategy - he can't resist! - and went in search of hostiles, but found empty air. I was lucky: finding a mix of both, in the right order. I also discovered an ancient chit that improved my dice-rolling. Those ancients! They knew how to make an artefact.

Early exploration

Unlike previous games where we have circled the centre hex warily, Ian and I barrelled in there on the same turn. I managed - just - to see off the hordes of Hickman, but my fleet was near-obliterated, and despite nearly defeating the ancients, they saw me off. We wondered whether Andrew wold take advantage of our military weakness, but he carried on exploring, content to keep distant.

endgame

We rebuilt, and re-attacked. But as the final round arrived, there was a proliferation of movement as ships flew in and out of hexes before finally settling into battle. I held onto the central hex, and managed to nab one of Ian and Andrew's. It was enough for the win:

Sam 31
Ian 21
Andrew 15

By the time Eclipse had finished, our evening had morphed from a genial 70's commercial for board-games into a bleak 70's health warning about alcohol. Ian and I both managed to research knowledge we'd already acquired. Andrew forewent his usual Zen fatalism in order to retake a turn, and insisted that not being able to see the research tiles was better.

In light of which it seemed apt that our next game was Extreme Biblios - or Blissful Bibs, as my fumbling fingers and auto-correct decided to call it. The game was notable for Andrew's apparent decision to bid on every colour in the auction, which for some reason gave me the giggles. Or maybe it was his voiced desire for Ian to eat his own sh*t.

Ah, Blissful Bibs...

Ian was more circumspect, but I managed to grab the Mr Biblios title by grabbing Blue, Brown and Red dice:

Sam 10
Ian 2 (wins on Extreme tie-breaker)
Andrew 2

Andrew and Ian started drinking whisky at this point, and we played Love Letter. Ian seemed to morph into a Derren Brown type figure, as he wiped out Andrew (once) and me (twice) with his first guesses.

Discard your future

I never recovered - or got going, to be more exact. Andrew did, though:

Andrew 3
Ian 2
Sam 0

As it was Saturday, we played more games! First up was Push It, which Ian won in the manner of Mike Tyson taking on a couple of small kangaroos.

Ian 9
Sam 5
Andrew 1

one reason I didn't take pics of Push It

But Andrew wasn't going to take that lying down, so we played again. This time it was as tight as it possibly could be, with all of us poised on 8 points. I have no recollection of how I won, but the evidence says I did:

Sam 9
Ian/Andrew 8

Whew! The curtains came down on the evening as we stood up, stretched, and put our coats on (except me, because I was already home). Then Andrew noticed we hadn't played Deep Sea Adventure, so we all sat down again as the curtain went back up.

diving 

I played a similar game to my Incan Gold tactics - safety first; making it back to the sub in all three rounds. I think Ian did similar. Andrew definitely drowned once, possibly twice. But he still remained competitive, which is quite impressive if you're dead:

Sam 36
Ian 34
Andrew 27

panicking

And with that, the evening really did end. They managed to find the front door, so I'm hopeful they both made it home...

Novocon Fun!

Only days after a large chunk of GNNers had spent a weekend away playing games, it was the turn of the four aging war horses of GNN to stagger out of their stables and stare, confused and short-sighted, across the green fields of this great nation.

Luckily, it was raining, which meant it was perfect gaming weather with no temptation to try “going for a walk” to distract us.

Sam and I arrived first, at about two thirty and I was impressed by how much like home it felt. Especially because the tablecloth was the same kind as the one in Sam’s kitchen. Sam got the fire going, made coffee and cheese on a bagel. I offered him a pickled egg for his efforts. He couldn’t finish it and would later insist that it gave him a headache. Then we spent about twenty minutes popping and sorting the various pieces for A Feast For Odin. It already looks like a beast of a game.

Then Paul and Chris arrived, and once they’d sorted themselves (and we noticed we had three copies of Love Letter and two of Istanbul) out we sat down for our first game at exactly 3.48pm! Then we had our first drink at exactly 3.58pm!

The game that accompanied our first tipple was Cosmic Run. It was Paul’s first, but it’s not the most complex game, so after a few rules clarifications, he was away.

With four players, there’s more time between turns for planets to be hit, and more emphasis on getting cards and crystals: two things I didn’t do very well. I didn’t land on any planets, either.

Paul 69
Sam 66
Chris 58
Andrew 52

After this, we were all hungry enough for Sam to start on an early supper while the other three of us tried Paul’s own creation: The Seven Bridges Of Königsburg. This is a game of demand and supply, where deliveries happen on the five islands of Königsburg according to the roll of the dice and the wishes of the player. On certain rolls (double six and double one) you have to move, and you can never cross the same bridge twice. There were a few rule tweaks to be made, and there’s something in it. It just needs a bit of pepping up.

We finished it while we ate Sam’s Chorizo and Prawn stew with rice, and it ended:

Chris 34
Andrew 26
Paul 23

Now it was the evening proper, we felt like something heavy. A challenge. We went for Nations. Not the simplified dice version, but the full epic game, taking in the entire sweep of human history. Not necessarily in the right order, though: I had built my first factory as Paul was finishing off Machu Picchu.

There are a lot of rules and icons to get your head around, and at first I didn’t enjoy it at all. But over time it started to click and by the end I was using my resources pretty efficiently. It was too late, and my mostly pacifist philosophy was proven to be the least successful social model to follow. Meanwhile, military-minded Sam did far better, starting several wars that cost Chris and I several victory points each.

Checking the rules

Sam 39
Chris 37
Paul 28
Andrew 26

It also gave us our first schoolboy-sniggering joke of the weekend when Paul placed a meeple on a card, innocently saying “I’m going to stick him in the aqueduct.”

After this epic, we went to the complete opposite of the scale, with a rousing game of Push-It. Chris sped into an early lead thanks to two two-pointers, and the rest of us couldn’t catch him, although it was close at times.

Chris 13
Paul 10
Andrew 9
Sam 8

There was still time on the clock, so we finished on an old familiar, El Grande. It took no time at all to set up and get started (if you don’t include the hiatus for cheese and crackers) and with only a couple of rules references (due to vague wording on the cards) we glided through the game effortlessly.

It was close after round one, but in round two Chris opened up a lead and, just like Push It, he couldn’t be caught. Sam and I tied for second.

Chris 104
Sam 89
Andrew 89
Paul 80

With that we were ready for bed. I shacked up in the games room, with only the dim glow of fading coal to keep me company. And the lights from the fridge, TV, clock etc.

On Saturday morning, I got up at 6.30 and pottered about a bit. Sam soon joined me at 7ish and we went for a walk in the crisp clear country air.

On returning, we sat down for a quick two-round game of Take It Easy. Sam’s subject for calling in round one was “Trees” and he even did it in alphabetical order. I chose “comics and magazines I read as a kid”. Sam had a nightmare second round (116) allowing me to steal the win.

Andrew 276
Sam 259

After this Paul and Chris emerged and while they busied themselves with coffee, showers and talking, I entertained myself with a swift solo game of Tiny Epic Galaxies. I won, defeating The Rogue Galaxy 13-12. Ha!

By now it was ten o’clock and time for the first four-player of the day: Heck Meck! Chris introduced it by reminding that his wife usually beats him thanks to some amazing good luck. However, I think Chris’s own bad luck might contribute too.

Sam 8
Paul 3
Andrew 1
Chris 0

It was quite a long game, with people preferring to steal off each other when they could rather than risk another roll and a better score. It was almost strategic.

This was followed by a journey to the nearest town for some supplies, and then back for the quick crossword (completed) and a brief sighting of a drowsy wasp in the kitchen. And I took a closer look at the strange carving in the garden, which was both phallic and vaginal at the same time.

The next game was Magnum Sal, suggested by Sam since it was a game that had sat unplayed in his cupboard for about two years. This game is set in the salt production industry of fourteenth century Poland, so I can’t imagine why it’s not grabbed our attention before.

It’s a worker placement game, as you seek to make chains in the mines to carry out salt mining. I found it quite combative, as new opened sections of mine would get quickly invaded by the next player, and if you had a bucket, it was possible to move water in your section to a neighbouring section. Chris’s early surge into a lead mid-game faded away as his orders for the king were taken by other players, and Sam surged from distant last into a close second with a profitable final round.

Paul 84
Sam 81
Andrew 69
Chris 33

We tried to work out the meaning of the icons on this card from Magnum Sal. We came up with "Touch the bottom of a cube. Touch the top of a cube. Stop touching the cube!"

This was followed by food: a wide range of cheeses and meats with bread. With a couple of tomatoes, as today’s vague gesture to healthy eating.

Then we went for a walk in the nearby nature reserve. In the fading country sun, it all looked so lovely that every few seconds seemed like an opportunity to take a photo. Chris and Sam saw a deer, but Paul was more transfixed by the trains that sped by occasionally.

Back home, there was a quick game of Perudo for money, and Sam won four whole pounds!

After this, I chose Eclipse as the next game. The epic game of space explosions is a favourite of mine, and perfect for a Saturday evening, before supper, about the same time that Dr Who is on. A bit longer than Dr Who, though.

Paul got a rules refresher, and played with great gusto, helped with a 11-power hypergrid source that he won in a battle. I went for my swarm of wasps strategy which I don’t think has ever won, but is lots of fun to play. Chris and Sam were both aliens, and Sam went heavily for research. He completed two tech tracks which we hadn’t quite understood the full implications of. One minute he was a plucky underdog, having a go at the Ancients in his sector, then Chris attacked him and within a couple of upgrades Sam’s ships had transformed into death machines of fear, bristling with guns and hulls.

In the final round, Sam also pushed into my area, since I was distracted by my attempt at attacking Paul’s ships in Chris’s central hex. Another impressive endgame from Sam handed him another win.

Sam 35
Chris 29
Andrew 22
Paul 20

Andrew and I (Sam) also did the Igloo Pop challenge

This was followed by a nice little parlour game that Sam introduced us to, in which someone chooses a book, reads the publicity bumf on the back to everyone, and then the other players secretly write what they think the opening sentence might be. Then these are all read out, along with the real sentence and people have to spot which one is the genuine article. Points are given for correct guesses or if someone guesses your sentence.

It was lots of fun, especially on one occasion when the real opening sentence was considerably worse than anything we came up with.

Sam 4
Chris 2
Andrew 2
Paul 2

After this little non-tabletop distraction, we got back into geek mode with Roll For The Galaxy. I haven’t played it before, but I remember being daunted by it when I shared a table with it a GNN evening.

It took a while to get around the rules which aren’t exactly intuitive, but I entertained myself by giving myself a difficult tile to develop right at the start, to see if I could do it before the game ended. I just about made it. And it game me lots of points, too, giving the impression that I was more involved than I actually was.

Chris 30 + dice tie-breaker
Sam 30
Paul 24 + dice tie-breaker
Andrew 24

Finally, Paul tempted us to stay up for one more game of Push-It. In the early stages it was pretty close at 4-3-3-3, and I remarked it showed that we were either evenly matched, or the whole thing was just random.

But then Chris pulled ahead and Paul sent the puck off the table while I proceeded to score no more points at all. It ended

Chris 11
Sam 8
Andrew 3
Paul 1

And so to bed…

Sunday morning, and I was up first again. Slightly cloudier outside, and colder but still nice outside. People slowly stirred and so our first game (sans Paul) was No Thanks! at about nine o’clock. We were all hoping for the final card to fit onto our runs of cards. It was the nineteen, which nobody wanted. So it just collected more and more coins until it was worth picking up.

Sam 43
Andrew 44
Chris 47

When we were all four together, we dug out Cosmic Run again. This time, only a little rule refresher was needed at the start. This time I went for planets, with a little side-dish of cards. It all ended with all of us rushing along the five-of-a-kind planet which was the only one left, finally getting to the end before it exploded. If that’s a good thing.

Andrew 61
Sam 54
Chris 52
Paul 44

After this, people did the shower thing and the rest of us played short games. Paul, Chris, and I played Love Letter, first to two. Chris’s one point came at the end of a remarkable round where I knew he was the Princess for three turns but couldn’t get him out.

Andrew 2
Paul 1
Chris 1

Then there were a couple of games of Cube Quest.

Paul 2
Andrew 0

And

Sam 2
Paul 1

Finally, with everyone clean(er) we set up the “long version” of Lords Of Waterdeep, ie the one with all the extensions. Paul stunned us all with an epic piece of AP on his penultimate move, as the rest of us were able to go to the toilet, get a drink, etc before he made his move.

In the end, his final moves were pretty good, but he said he thought he could’ve got another twenty points if only things were different.

Chris slightly over-prepares for a quest

I went skull-heavy, while Paul and Sam were the most noble of us. Or, at least, the best at getting rid of their skulls once they’d got them. But Chris showed why they almost call him “Mr Waterdeep”:

Chris 167
Paul 166
Andrew 147
Sam 141

Then we went for a walk in the rain, complete with rainbow.

Once we’d returned, Sam taught Paul how to play Scythe while Chris introduced me to Cartography. After a shaky start, my knowledge of Go held me in good stead and I won the second game handsomely.

Meanwhile, on the big table, Scythe was up and ready to go. Paul was yellow, Chris was white, I was black and Sam was red. While I got an early lead, Sam came charging up, getting to four stars and then ending the game with his next go by attacking Paul. Truly, it is the way of all things, that a student must one day defeat their teacher. But Paul didn’t win. Sam did, and then used Paul’s oil to upgrade for his sixth star.

Sam attacks his own protege

Although I had more territory and stars than Chris, his exemplary housekeeping meant he had plenty of money in the bank, which added to his paltry end of game bonuses ruined my hopes of a runner-up place.

Sam 77
Chris 42
Andrew 38
Paul 19

There was room for one more before Paul had to go and get his train. It was 7 Wonders, and I remarked it must make him nostalgic, playing this while keeping half an eye on the clock. Chris’s military might and high scores across the board meant the winner was never in doubt.

Chris 62
Paul 54
Sam 46
Andrew 38

And with that, Paul was off into the night, heading back to Clapham Junction.

After we ate Chris’s meal (made for four, but the three of us finished it off) we leapt back into gaming with Terraforming Mars. Chris said he liked it, but it was a bit long for what it was. I didn’t understand what he was talking about, it had always flied by for me, but tonight I understood. We began at eight and finished at half ten. Two and a half hours for three players is a lot.

The game itself was notable for people pushing up the temperature really fast while not putting down any city tiles. Chris had loads of titanium, but seemed unable to get titanium-feulled cards from the deck. Oh, how we laughed. By the end, it was a very populated Mars, with nine cities, an active volcano, lots of greenery and a commercial centre. You know, somewhere for the bank holiday shopping.

My sudden leap up the score chart with victory points on cards (24 pts) wasn’t enough to get out of last, but at least saved my blushes.

Sam 90
Chris 83
Andrew 71

We followed this up with a trio of small games. I won at Love Letter:

Andrew 3
Chris 2
Sam 2

And then Chris won his first ever game of For Sale:

Chris 72
Sam 65
Andrew 62

And finally my luck deserted me on Heck Meck as I went for three rounds without rolling a single worm. Sam was a clear leader midway through the game, but luck can go down as well as up, and Chris managed to overturn some of his recent poor form in the game.

Sam 6
Chris 6
Andrew 3

Finally, it was time for bed. Except for Chris, who sat down with a cup of coffee. Crazy.

Monday morning was a leisurely mostly Sam-less affair, as he had a lie in. Chris and I read rule books, with me taking on A Feast For Odin as my morning read.

After a while Chris and I decided to have a little game of Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small. It’d been a while for both of us, but Chris pig farming prowess made him look set for the win. In fact, that’s how we first counted it up. It wasn’t until afterwards when I was grumbling (good naturedly, I hope) about Smith’s way with a pig that he reconsidered that he might not have had fifteen after all.

We checked the photographic evidence, and he decided that he can’t have. This gave me a win, after a recount:

Andrew 45
Chris 44

Finally Sam woke up at 9.55, meaning his hopes of setting off at 10.00 were pretty much over. For our last game we chose Raj, the fun game of bluffing and accidental telepathy. It ended:

Sam 65
Chris 52
Andrew 27

All that was left was to tidy up and fail to find the recycling bins and we were away! Thanks all for a lovely long weekend.