TRNDing

 

I arrived at Sam’s house at the same time as Ian (bike) and Katy (walking) and, technically, also Andy M but he stayed sitting in his car for now.

Inside, the three of us found the host and Joe and, shortly, Jo in attendance. We thought of a game we could play that would allow any latecomers to join in, and so Cross Clues was brought to the table.

It was clearly going to be tricky with “Air” and “Airport” next to each other on the y-axis. But it turned out that “hat” proved more difficult. Joe had to repeatedly warn us “I still don't think it's Doctor/Hat.” Sam clued “Fedora” which baffled us as to which hat it should be. It turned out to be “lentil/hat” because both are kind of brown. 

23 out of 25

Everyone had, by now, arrived. Adam H and Andy M rounded off the numbers. We had a rare treat of staying as a single group for the next game. Jo had brought in a few prototype games that they'd been working on. Exciting times. It had been a long time since GNN had hosted anything that could be described as a homegrown game and now there were three!

We chose Squirl, since it could comfortably include all of us playing together. It's a word game where everyone builds up words, letter by letter, left to right, using letters that appear on a card revealed at the start of the round. 

Jo talked us through the rules and, like consummate play-testers/clueless idiots, we kept asking for rules clarifications throughout the first few rounds. Each letter had a value and occasional bonuses would appear in order to tempt players to gamble on an unlikely letter. 

It was fun. I played a very pedestrian game, with words like “glitter” looking a bit ordinary next to Sam's “crypt” and Joe's “vexings”. Mid-game, Katy realised that her word “vertigo” wouldn’t fit into the six spaces on the sheet.

Andy poured Maltesers into the same bowl that had previously held Frazzles while he predicted that we’ll all be swearing soon. By the end, I’m dead last but there’s a moment of tension while the scores are added up - will the inventor be beaten at their own game?

No, it seems not.

Jo 143

Andy 129

Adam 124

Joe 120

Sam 115

Ian 115

Katy 87

Andrew 71

Despite my placing, I enjoyed it and was impressed to hear it’ll be published in a couple of years or so. You read about it here first!

Finally we split into two groups. Me, Joe, Andy M and Katy went lighter and shorter. Jo, Sam, Ian and Adam H played Foundations of Metropolis . I know little about that game except the end results.

Sam 82

Ian 72

Jo 69

Adam 62

At the lighter end of the table, the four of us began with TRND - a set collecting card game with chairs. It’s blindingly simple.Three colours, three types of chairs. You pick up and discard from the array of visible cards or just pick up (and don’t discard) from the deck. Once you have a hand of identical chairs you reveal your hand. Last one to reveal gets no points. First to 81 wins.

So simple, but with a push your luck aspect, especially when there are only two people left and the temptation to get out as soon as possible for fewer points is too great to resist.

Andy 86

Katy 72

Andrew 34

Joe 16

Then we played Xylator. The packaging of this game had earlier caught Katy’s eye with its polar bear playing a guitar-shaped xylophone. Joe explained that it was a trick-taking game with, admittedly, a lengthy back-story to explain the cover art. Andy had to go at 10.15 and I was thinking about bed too, so we only played one round.

If TRND is simple, Xylotar is anything but. The cards come in five colours and the highest value of each colour is different. All cards are dealt out and then we arrange our hands numerically, but trying to do so in such a way to disguise the real value of the card because once that’s done, the cards are placed face down so the only information available is the colour and the person next to you uses it as their hand when playing a round of, basically, whist.

After a single round, the scores were.

Andy 9

Joe 8

Andrew 5

Katy 2

It was interesting. Hard to tell what was going on after a single round, but I’m curious to see what strategies emerge after several plays.

With that, I was gone. Thanks all. See you all soon.

*

Sam here. Just to add that we played a couple of games of So Clover and another newbie of Jo's which was a Perudo-esque risk-taking, word-making game that was a lot of fun. I now don't remember who won though. 

Everyone meet in San Francisco

 The rain that had peppered Bristol’s streets faded away in the evening, allowing walkers and cyclists alike the chance to converge on Joe’s kitchen for another night of games.

Before I'd even arrived, I was informed of an early game between Joe and Sam of Crokinole which was won by Joe.

I had to take a detour to a pharmacy so my ETA went back to 8pm and when I finally arrived, they (Joe, Adam T, Sam, Martin and Ian) were just finishing a game of Money.

Martin won, top of a crazy spread of scores that left Joe bemused as to what exactly he did so wrong. 

Martin 840

Adam 510

Ian 280

Sam 210

Joe 40

We were currently a six and we were expecting Katy at 9, dashing over from her book club. What could we play in an hour? Around The World In 80 Days was mooted, but probably too long with six.

Instead, Ian,  Sam and Joe played Foundations of Metropolis. A game I still haven't played but looks like area-control mixed with tetris. 

Adam, Martin and I pretended to think about what to play but, with a copy of Impulse on the table, it was never in doubt. 

We set up with only the slimmest of rules refreshers needed. We began in quite a generous mood, I put a draw card on the “impulse” (the communal row of cards we can all use) that allowed us to all take more cards into our hands and this seemed to set a trend. Adam even checked the rules regarding whether a player can draw more cards if they're at the hand limit. 

Over on Foundation, Ian made some disparaging remark about Joe not having any money. Sam, meanwhile, cried out “tear down those schools!” with delight. In the end, Joe upends Ian’s dismissive attitude towards the poor with a win.

Joe 105

Sam 101

Ian 86

As for Impulse, we were pretty close together until Martin attacked Adam and landed on 12 points - the level from which he usually pushes on to the game-winning 20-point mark. I had to do something so, after Adam sadly defended himself against further attacks from me, I used up most of my cards and all of my plan in one big push for victory. I got as far as 16 before I stalled. Still, I told myself, if Martin doesn’t reach 20 points, I’m a certain winner!

What a delusional fool I was.

Martin 20

Andrew 16

Adam 7

Now Katy was here. I don’t remember if there was a slight staggering in the end of games or if fate just kept us in the same groups, but Katy joined Sam, Joe and Ian for a delightful romp of Around The World In 80 Days. Martin, Adam and I decided on another old familiar, San Francisco.

This meant that one group was playing a game in a location that appearing in the other group’s game. I don’t think that’s happened since Wallenstein and Castles of Burgundy were played on the same night.

In fact, we noticed that 80 Days contained a lot of locations with games named after them (London, Yokohama etc…). We considered a variant whereby landing in a location meant you had to all actually play that game. The longest board game in the world!

We started at about the same time, with Katy promising us that she’d let us know when they arrive in San Francisco.

As for the games, Joe spent 12 days going from Bombay to Calcutta on an express elephant. Ian, for the record, was first to get to San Francisco and the first to return to London. [spoilers for the original novel] And he didn’t even need the International Date Line quirk to succeed [/spoilers]

Ian 72

Katy 73

Joe 90

Sam stuck in New York

As for the real San Francisco, it was all about Martin. Whatever I tried, nothing seemed to stop him from picking up massively beneficial cards. He built skyscrapers, completed rows, got architect tokens. Adam and I were reduced to fighting over majority points for most workers in a row. My two skyscrapers at least stopped it looking like I hadn’t even tried.

Martin 16½

Adam 8

Andrew 7

At this point, not quite ten o'clock, I chose the sensible option and left. I missed the rousing finale of 80 Days but got the scores from Sam in a late night message.

Then I learnt about their two attempts at So Clover. The first ended 31/36 but was notable for Joe’s clue of Dildo for double/end as “it was the only thing I could think of with two ends.”

Then they tried again with 34/36! Oh, So Closver!

Thanks all. Special as always.

Synonyms from the Stars

Just the four of us last night at Joe's - as well as the host it was Ian, Martin and myself (Sam) just mobile enough after an ankle sprain to make up the quartet. An unusually sparse evening kicked off with A Message From the Stars, new to me and to be frank even more bamboozling than I found Hooky. I'd read Andrew's report on Message but for whatever reason neither that nor Joe's careful explanation or Martin's interjections stopped me spending the game feeling like a doofus, which I was. 

Martin was an alien trying to clue us a desperate message (although in fact, only three words) and we had our words we needed to convey to him. But it's kind of two-games in one because as well as supplying synonyms and/or related words to the secret ones, we also have to deduce some letters behind the alien's board which have - unless I'm still confused - zero relationship to the words he's trying to make us guess. I think. 

our three words

The 'message' thing is by the by - perhaps that's what threw me - although it does stitch in a seam of comedy. Both sides clued semi-synonyms for their words on the first three rounds then threw in a bonus clue that confused everybody. Martin's 'Trump' we discovered seemed to dovetail with anything remotely negative: tiny, weak, arrogant. But despite this we decoded everything triumphantly, and moved on to Foundations of Metropolis. 

New to Joe and Ian but simple to teach: take cash, buy deeds, or build. But both the deed-buying and the building have a snarky interactive element, as you can cockblock your way around the board with the deeds (©Martin) and leach other's constructions with the civic buildings, which score points depending what they're built next to. Retail buildings score points just for existing and residential buildings provide another parasitic quirk: you score the position of the person ahead of you on the population track. 

Ian's early lead after round one was pegged back as we jostled for position, and my final turn in round two nabbed the population bonus to give me a narrow lead. But in round three Martin's decision to stop giving a shit about citizens and focus on banks proved 'constructive':

Martin 101

Sam 92

Ian 82

Joe 69

Martin suggested Gang of Dice and we all swiftly agreed. I elected to roll all my dice on the very first turn which Martin was appalled at, citing my blithe disregard for probabilities. He was right and Ian won. In fact Ian seemed to win most of the rounds, although Joe popped up now and again to maintain the illusion Ian might possibly not be the victor. 

I kept rolling with an idiotic optimism that did at one point pay off, when I needed to not roll any odd numbers came up with 4-4-2-2 on my final attempt. A stopped clock and all that. 

However Martin's more scientific - or less moronic - approach wasn't serving him well either: he picked up a single win when the rest of us busted. And when he finally ignored his head and went with his gut, that let him down too. Ian picked us off like dice-rolling fish in a casino barrel.

Ian 101

Joe 55

Sam 6

Martin 0

My foot was telling me to go home but I stayed for a quick bash at So Clover, although all of us were stumped by our combos initially. I think Ian was first to finish and we deduced his words with relative ease before stumbling on my clover (Electric/Demon: I'm sure there's a better clue than Lightning but I couldn't think of it). 

I didn't take any photos, sadly, but we managed 22/24 with just my clover falling at the deduction hurdle. It was 10.40 though and pumpkin time for me - I hobbled off whilst they played another So Clover, with a not-dissimilar result after Joe's clue of sharpen for cactus/file a particular highlight. Martin's clover was apparently the shortfall this time, with a lot of possible solutions, but overall a solid 16/18 regardless.

And that was apparently that. 

Are We Young?

Steve, Anja, Louie and Lennon were our hosts last night so after a day of more rain Martin and I (car) and Adam (bicycle) made our way to Mayfield Park to join them, along with new arrival Pete, whom Martin and Joe had met at the Bath Kniziathon. After some crumble, Anja escorted Lennon off to bed and we debated how to start the evening, eventually settling on Courtisans (Martin, Adam and Pete) and Spots (myself, Steve and Louie). 

Pete was new to Courtisans and Louie hadn't played Spots before, so there was a bit of rules explaining going on before we tucked into our openers. I didn't keep up with the drama in court, although Louie pithily remarking that just sitting next to it gave him a headache was commentary enough. It does a look more mad than it actually is though. 

In Spots Louie and Steve were first to 'bank' dogs as I trailed behind, before lurching to an unexpected and frankly jammy win just as Louie looked poised to wrap up a debut victory. In contrast Pete was emerging the winner on his first play of Courtisans.

Pete 8
Martin 7
Adam 6

Both games ended at the exact same moment and Anja reappeared to take bed-bound Louie's place. We shuffled seats, with Anja and Adam intro-ing Pete to Cascadero whilst I talked Steve and Martin through the rules of Foundations of Metropolis.  

Here, we're building a city on a shared board in a game where you take one of three actions on each turn. You can purchase a deed in the city, take income from the bank, or build on areas where you own the deeds. The building's the thing, as certain buildings up your income, others push up your population (points) and civic buildings will score points depending on what other buildings they're next to. 

The population of each player has a quirky methodology - on a separate track to the points track everyone scores the position of the next player ahead of them. Whoever's in first place scores their own position plus a bonus, which escalates over each round of the game. This meant that as Steve and Martin fought it out over the population majority, I sat back on a single population point knowing that I'd score (kind of) second place - and focused my energies on getting as many civic buildings out as I could. 

Steve is appalled. Can't remember why

It's got a nice brisk pace to it and both the parasitic leaching of the civic buildings and the more aggro claiming of deeds, especially if you know someone else wants them. Having played a few times already my experience helped me out, but both Martin and I were confident he'd beat me next time.

Sam 118
Martin 93
Steve 82

On the Cascadero board meantime Anja was having the kind of experience that I have serially undergone at the hands of Martin, as Adam chained all manner of bonus bonanzas together and he and Pete pulled away up the track. We played Klink, which Steve announced he would be terrible at, but it transpired that the fates had it in for Martin on this occasion. At the climax of the game he listed the numerous numbers he could flip that would all help him in some way. None was a ten, which is what he turned over.

The player with the least points wins when someone reaches 77...

Sam 33
Steve 44
Martin 101

And Cascadero finished with Adam taking the insta-win by sailing past 50 points. Debutant Pete was back on 37 and Anja laughing in deranged disbelief on 22. I felt her agony. Brilliant game. Painful game. Martin was flabbergasted at the envoys having zero decorum, with most of the horses on their noses. 

The clock was ticking so we quickly bashed out So Clover - yet another new set of rules for Pete, who showed remarkable equanimity to be taking on instructions at 10.30 with a return drive to Bradford on Avon looming. During the mulling period he pondered aloud about using the same clue twice, and we all chortled at the very idea. But then he did it, putting 'Light' on two sides of his clover. Whatever the collective noun for synonym spotters/confirmation-bias victims is, we became it as we found 'Light' seemed to go with everything - even, at one stage, Pumpkin (my suggestion). To be fair though we only got one card wrong and that was because of Pumpkin. "Who suggested that?" Adam cried, not unreasonably. It did now seem rather ludicrous, although was it as silly as Cinderella taking an Uber to the ball?

Other highlights were Anja's slaw for salad/religion and Martin's overactive for coffee/rabbit. We only came a real cropper on Steve's clue of Licken, where we missed his sound logic in favour of combos such as 'Tunnel Hen'. Overall though, a solid enough 31/36 to round off the night, after Anja explained her clue of 'bass' related to drum and bass - what young people listen to. 
"Young people in the 90s" Steve added, before Adam mournfully voiced the blog title aloud, almost to himself.

A fun night, thanks everyone. Sorry about the pumpkin.