Chieftain o' the Pudding Race

Games was back at Joe's house this week, with a fresh tablecloth ready for the hot breath of avid gamers, intent on fun. I confess I was super-tired before the fun could commence, but having missed last week I forced myself to attend - for a bit, anyway. 

When I descended the stairs, Martin and Adam T were already at the table, and Ian just removing his coat. With only Adam H now in the offing, we discussed what we could play, Someone mentioned we could just wait instead, but Joe pointed out that if we did that, Adam wouldn't arrive. And sure enough one round of Sushi Go was all it took to make him materialise, like Marley's meeple-loving ghost, out of the cool night air. 

Martin was already happily reminiscing about how shit the game is at this point, but Adam H was happy to be dealt in with seven random cards to score. There were quite a few jokes about how it was basically 7 Wonders without all the icons, but I don't remember them now. I dodged the competitive rolls of rice and concentrated on Nigiri, and an excess of puddings. It seemed to work. 

Sam 41
Joe 35
Adam T 33

Ian 31
Martin 27
Adam H 23

I was pleasantly surprised by my victory, but I have to concur that the game is pretty bland. "I could name a thousand better games for non-gamers!" Martin harrumphed. Then he thought for a moment and changed the number to a hundred, before anyone could challenge him. 

We split into two threes, with Joe, Ian and Adam H capering off around the globe in Expeditions and Martin, Adam T and I capering with marginally less frivolity towards Mordor in the Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking game.

What happened in Expeditions I am unsure, as I was busy being confounded by the sneaky chapter 14 in LotR: tFotR, where we make our way through Moria, confront the Balrog and curse Boromir's feeble heart once more (discarding the Mithril shirt to make up for his shortcomings). It was a 'Long' chapter, meaning there are multiple characters that need completing, across multiple rounds, and officially the ruling is that any mis-step means you restart the entire round. But the game also does allow you to just restart from where you had got to previously, and that's what we did. The rounds are interesting, but not for the first time I felt that the long chapters feel attritional and the 'doing characters twice' option detracts from an-already flimsy sense of narrative. But at least we completed it - sort of. Our initial triumph did involve leaving Pippin behind. "I don't give a shit about him" Martin confessed. Adam and I were more of a mind to bring him along though, so we played one last round, failed, and then announced we'd won anyway. Almost as though Gandalf has his own Truth Social feed. 

Expeditions finished now too: 

Adam H 22
Ian 20
Joe 15

With apologies I missed any late drama, as I was now wrapped up in the shenanigans of Martin's latest addition, Pumafiosi, a mini-Reiner with quite nice production and a lot of dickishness. The rhythm of it is sort-of trick-taking, but instead of the winner it's the second-strongest card that gets added to a hierarchy of points cards in the middle of the table. During around, these can get bumped down the ladder (minus points for being bumped) and you've some one-use special abilities to take advantage of. 

After ten tricks are played the rungs on the ladder score, and Adam T gets lots of points. My catastrophic middle round and Martin's feeble third round meant there was only ever one winner. 

Adam T 45
Martin 31
Sam 30

They'd now finished Expeditions and were playing Ra. 

And I was feeling the pace of all this fun and threatened to leave, so Martin coaxed a game of Jungo out of me. Adam took to this very quickly as well, winning the first round in no time before Martin took the second. Then Adam added the third and hit the two-rounds-wins victory objective! I do like Jungo. Any game where you get to say the word 'invoke' can't be all bad. 

Martin and Adam began setting up Agent Avenue as I headed for home, which is where Joe takes over the story...

Joe here, thanks Sam. Ra weaved its relentless way towards the end of the ancient Egyptian era, and it was, as it always is, gloriously tense. Ian was on course for the win, but a generous final epoch plus winning sun tiles gave me the late running. "I'm rubbish at Ra", sighed Adam H, in a similar intonation with which he'd announced "I love this game" after beating us at Expeditions earlier. 

Joe 60

Ian 44

Adam 27

By now Sam had gone, and both Adams made noises about leaving. In the end only AH did;  AT stayed, coaxed by the promise of So Clover. Martin threw a cardboard spanner into the works, brandishing Llama Llama, but as he began the rules, Adam wrinkled his nose and said "Shall we just play So Clover?" And so we did. 

We acquitted ourselves decently, with a score of 22/24, only undone by Ian's perfectly reasonable paring of coil with wind, which we all read to rhyme with binned, not bind. Doh! 

I was pleased with my clue of magazine to go with ammo and life. And with that, the bell tolled, and the lights faded on another Tuesday night. Earlier than is perhaps usual, but with a full Sunday of gaming in the offing, in the form of Decacon, we all needed to get some rest.

 

Doorstepping

 This week, on approaching Joe's welcoming door I found Adam H, Sam and Katy all having just arrived too. We said our hellos on the path to the front door and then Martin arrived too. A few more welcomes were shared when I asked if anyone had actually knocked.

Happily, someone had and Joe opened his door and greeted us all with a look of mild bemusement.

We went down to the kitchen where we found Adam T already sitting at the table. We chatted admirably and established that we 7 were the night's attendees. 

We split into two, poured pickled onion Monster Munch into a bowl, and began the games. Sam, Martin, Adam T and Katy played Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game. Martin described it as The Crew but Lord Of The Rings. A collaborative trick taker where the players adopt personas from the books in order to achieve certain trick taking criteria each round. 

I don't know if Sam was ever Sam but I did hear him say “I'll try being Merry,” as if he were begrudgingly agreeing to enjoy himself.

Four chapters complete. Managed to leave The Shires.

Joe, Adam H and I played Expeditions. This trailblazing game of gratuitous tourism pitted the three of us in a challenge to see who could visit all the locations on the cards in our hand first. 

The game begins with each player putting down four markers indicating four of the twelve locations in our hands. Adam put all of his markers in Africa. A bold move.

 As the game progressed,  we soon learnt that he had other locations in Africa, conveniently close to the starting point of Essen in Germany. I also had a cluster of locations but they were in far flung Australia.

The trick of the game is to use the non-locations spaces to get extra turns or tickets (allowing you certain benefits). Both Joe and I ran out of tickets at one point while Adam never did.

When the game ended,  all my remaining markers and cards counted against me. But Adam's victory was never in doubt.

Adam H 17

Joe 14

Andrew 7

At this point the two games ended and we rearranged our seating slightly.

Joe, Adam T and Martin played Bebop, the game about crowds at a Jazz festival. I was tempted to volunteer too but the only way to allay Sam's doubts about starting so late (8.30) was by Martin insisting it'd be shorter with just three players. 

Instead, I joined Adam, Katy and Joe in a game of Las Vegas. Katy had initially asked for Lords Of Vegas and was appalled when she learnt there wasn't copy in the house. 

But Las Vegas scratches a thematically similar itch. We rolled our little cubes of destiny across Joe's new dice mat and did our best to control the casinos along the Strip. We managed some pretty snazzy rolls, beginning round two with three of us rolling three 6s among our dice, only for Joe to let us down - he only had three fives.

Joe also amazed us by telling us he’d actually been to Las Vegas. Katy was especially stunning, reasoning that during all the times they’d played Lords of Vegas, he might have already mentioned it. Maybe his first hand experience came in handy, because he came first after I lost my winning position thanks to a dry last round and him picking up $200k..

Joe $530,000

Andrew $490,000

Katy $310,000

Adam H $290,000

As for Bebop, I didn't follow much after the ceremony of popping out the cardboard pieces but I did hear Martin remark on Sam’s early lead and Sam replying “I’ve got to make hay before I know what I’m doing,” adding that understanding the rules of a game is usually when his results start to tail off.

I left after Las Vegas but got the scores from Bebop. Looks like Sam’s early surge was enough to give him the win.

Sam 96

Adam T 75 (win on tiebreaker)

Martin 75

And after that they played The Gang

And good old So Clover.

Happily Ever Rafter

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

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

The gang's all here

2 successes, 3 failures.

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

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

Adam 39

Ian 37

Martin OUT (but scored 38)

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

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

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

Sam 15

Joe 9

Andrew 5

Katy 4

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

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

Andrew lost

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

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

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

Joe 19

Katy 19

Martin 17

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

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

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

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

Shiny fire

Adam 179

Sam 153

Andrew 144

Ian 127

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

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

Thanks all. It was special!

Love Shark, Baby

Anja and Louie were our hosts last night as GNN headed east to the land of the Time Clock. Steve was away so it was Louie who let us in, after Joe and I arrived early enough that we sat in the car for five minutes pretending we were on a stake-out. Then Martin, and Adam arrived and we kicked off things as a ludological sextet, setting sail in Whale Riders. 

Louie treated the game like a straightforward race, sending his whale careening down the coast before finally consenting to get some stuff for contracts. Although this made him an unlikely candidate for victor, it forced the pace of the game. injecting the laggards with a slight sense of panic. As blubber/watermelon got hoovered up, large amounts of storms appeared, making the perviously-bounteous offerings of wherever it is look suddenly rather barren, like aquatic Lidls raided for toilet paper and comestibles. 

Louie made it back first with one contract realised and began buying pearls (points). I sailed in behind him just in time to snag the most rewarding pearl tiles, and this was enough for a win. 

Sam 16

Martin/Joe 11 each

Adam 10

Louie 7

Anja 5

Anja revealed her starting contracts, which seemed to focus solely on huge amounts of blubber/watermelon. A not-ideal start for a newbie, but it sounded like Whale Riders wouldn't feature again soon anyway, with Louie pronouncing it 'boring'. Again I kicked myself for not bringing Robot Quest Arena! Sorry Louie.

Mel was about to arrive so we did some executive decision-making on her behalf, with Joe and Anja setting up Joe's new game Expeditions (Trans America crossed with... something else)  and Adam, Martin and I trying our hands, yet again, at Cascadero. 

I missed the rules explanation to Expeditions as by that time we were envoy-deep in Cascadero's Farmer side of the map. This side is pretty much identical to the basic side - visit cities, make connections - but has Babylonia-esque farms you can jump in when you're adjacent, triggering bonuses or points. I'd had an absolute pasting at the hands of Martin recently (twice) so just wanted to remain semi-competitive, and I think three is perhaps the ideal number for this game: not as long, slow or thinky as four but less tete-a-tete than a head to head. We sprawled, we bonused, we got in each other's way, we called each other dicks. It was fun. 

Meanwhile Expeditions got expedited and, other than the final score, I'm afraid that's all I can say about the other end of the table. Cascadero does take a lot of brain space. We finished before they did with an incredibly tight set of scores:

Martin 36

Adam 35 (second on tie-breaker)

Sam 35

Martin had been concerned about my imminent point-scoring for networks, but as I had to spend all my late-game turns trundling up the orange track, imminent was all they remained. I triggered the end of the game with a slender lead: with their last turns both Adam and Martin overtook me!

We watched the finale of Expeditions/checked our phones. 

This turned out to be a tight finish as well, with the tiebreaker unable to separate Joe and Anja:

Anja/Joe 20

Mel 16

Whilst I'm still no clearer on what exactly one does in expeditions bar a vague idea of getting those plastic arrows to certain destinations, everyone seemed happy with it. But at least three of us were starting to yawn heavily now, so we decided on one last game to finish the night, and Cabanga got bounced in favour of So Clover. 

We were stunned - not sure why, really - to find that Anja and Mel had only played once or twice, but I guess on the other hand they lead more varied and interesting Tuesday night lives than the rest of us. Although having said that, when Martin asked Mel how she was she replied "I hate work and my appliances are driving me mad", so possibly not. 

My clover was first up and unfortunately we had an imperfect start with a 4. Mel had spotted the connection I was going for but her softly spoken ways were drowned out by rowdy GNN regulars. But after that initial stumble we gave So Clover a more than decent shake of the stick, harvesting a few sixes from some nice clues (Joe gave us B52s for Love/Shark) and bookending them with another stumble on Anja's clover when some tricky combos (eg degree/ballroom) gave us a few self-generated red herrings. But overall a more than respectable 30/36 to round off the night. 

And that was that! Thanks all, a fun night's work.