Swapping Secret Santa for Secret Hitler

Big T was first to arrive at my house for Christmas games yesterday, as we kicked off a few hours earlier than usual at 1pm. Joe was hot on his heels so after a brief catch-up and coffee, we reasoned that it would be silly not to start playing games, so we did. Joe brandished Take Time at us and we jumped in.

This is a fun little Mind-esque game of playing numbered cards around a clock face, with the not-insignificant caveat that each segment, going clockwise, must be of the same or higher value than the one previous. Add in a couple of extra wrinkles and that's pretty much it: but with no communication allowed after you've seen your cards, success proved occasionally elusive. Did we succeed on that final round? I don't actually remember now, but either way, Katy arrived and we shifted gears into sentient vegetable heroism with Potato Man. 

There was just time for a one-round game (won by me) before, as if summoned into being by Adam - compare above and below images - Pete turned up. 

We played another single-round game (won by Big T) and then Adam H and Laura arrived, so we split into teams and broke out Phantom Ink. Joe and I were the clues, with Joe's team at a slight numerical disadvantage (Joe, Pete, Big T) as I clued to Laura, Katy and Adam H. 

Our first word was Pancake, and despite my spelling confusion, our team's question of Who would dislike it was very helpful as I started <mis>spelling CELI(AC). When asked for a nickname I clued CRE(PE) and from there it was a straightforward victory. We went again with the Adams now clueing for the same teams, and midway through the game Chris arrived to bolster the numbers, joining with the short-staffed Pete/Joe/Big T gang. Unfortunately we lost our most coherent decoder shortly after, as Laura had to go off and escape from a room in Cabot Circus, and Katy and I spent most of our time looking at each other in confusion as Adam regarded us with a mix of long-suffering sympathy and crestfallen disappointment. We did figure out Snow, but our shot in the dark simply negated any opposition doubts and they guessed, correctly, the answer was Snowball. 

We realised with a large afternoon stretching before us we could now play some big ol' chunkers. Big T proffered The Barracks Emperors and Joe Chris and Katy leapt in to join him. I played the Christmas sympathy card to get River of Gold on the table and Andy Mosse arrived to find himself dealt in to it, charitably sitting down to an immediate rules-teach. 

In River of Gold, we're sailing up and down (well, repeatedly down, thanks to Rokugan's curious looping geography) the river and establishing trade routes. Despite the madness of the board, River of Gold has a certain simplicity to it: there are only three actions to choose from: move your boat, build a building or deliver to a customer. The goal is to move yourself up the six influence tracks to the east of the river, and the main difficulty we found with the game is remembering to roll the die at the end of your turn instead of the beginning. 

Andy took the laurels here, with Pete second and then myself and Adam lagging a short way behind. 

At the other end of the table, the Barracks were echoing to the sound of a lot of profanity, with Katy summoning her insult of choice for Chris as he did something or other she objected to. There seemed to be a lot of objecting, in fact - the game is a trick-taker of sorts but with a board where cards are laid and prizes - using the word loosely - to be surrounded and claimed. This chicanery continued as River of Gold finished and we began playing Poison. 

This was also new to Andy, but he took to it with his standard zen vibes and nearly followed his River of Gold triumph with a second win, but I just pipped him. 

Sam 13

Andy 14

Adam H 22

Pete 34

Around now the Barracks Emperors concluded as well, and Katy celebrated her debut victory by going off for chips, abetted by Joe and Adam. When they returned, Andrew was with them as well, like the fourth wise man, proffering a festive bottle of ketchup. We paused for dinner. 

After that, Joe suggested Secret Hitler and we split into liberals and fascists. Katy wanted to know if, should she be dealt into the fascists team, she could sabotage it. Joe admitted there was no rule against it, but it could get confusing. And in fairness the game was confusing enough with Joe and I not spotting that each other were fascists and me being convinced Chris was, even though he hadn't opened his eyes. I knew Katy wasn't because she seemed to be enjoying herself.  

I'm still not 100% clear on how the game works, but I did grasp that we all take turns being the president, and the president nominates a chancellor, and then there's a vote and then the president gets some cards and passes two to the chancellor to choose one of, and after this either a liberal or fascist law gets passed. There's enough fog over proceedings that nobody can be totally sure who is who, and Andy found himself shot dead simply for having the temerity to chat in chambers. Then Katy shot Big T who was Hitler and so the liberals won - perhaps for the best in these popularist times, and certainly for Katy's disposition. 

Laura was returning imminently so we split into three groups, with the Fellowship trick-taker, Babylonia and Mille Fiori spread across the table. But now I will hand the reins to our default note-taker and blogger, Andrew.

*

I was walking towards Sam’s house when I was caught up by Joe, Katy and Adam T. I was astonished as the coincidence of all of us arriving at the same time but this was soon explained when I saw the bags full of portions of fish and chips. I had got here just as people were breaking for food.

I had just eaten, so I watched while the gaming table vanished beneath unwrapped papers and various deep fried comestibles. The chat revolved around games, trying to think which games would work with non gamers. Joe told us about a game where you’re given a word and have to guess if it’s a Tolkein character or an antidepressant.

After the food was finished and the table cleared, Secret Hitler was brought to the table. As Sam has already said, it’s a social deduction game, it was capable of allowing all of us to play. In this game, the liberals have to detect the fascists - as determined by drawing an envelope with your secret identity within. And if that weren't enough, one lucky (?) player gets to be Hitler.

I'll be honest, I didn’t really get it. I was a fascist and, as such, I knew that my partners were Joe and Sam but it later transpired that Sam didn't know about Joe, since they were sitting next to each other and couldn’t see each others’ secret signal at the start of the game . Additionally,  Chris kept passing fascist policies. Maybe he was also a fascist and I hadn't noticed, I thought, or maybe he's passing fascist policies because they give the player a little special action. But then Chris, using a special action, assassinated the liberal Andy M, so then I was quite convinced he was a fascist and I’d missed it. Sam voted against himself as President. “I changed my mind,” he explained. I was bemused.

In the end, Katy was the one who identified Adam T as Hitler and killed him, and the game ended with the liberals victorious. It was quite sedate, apparently. Previous (non GNN) games have been quite rambunctious, we were told. Maybe it was the chips, but it was all very low key. I had no idea what was going on at all.

Next, several people adjourned to the front room to choose a game, and Pete came back with a £10 note in his hand, making us all wonder what was going on in there. We hear from Laura that she’s on her way and so we devise a system in which we set up three games and she can join any of them once she arrives.

The choices in this devillishly complex method was Fellowship of the Ring (Adam T, Chris and myself), Babylonia (Sam, Adam H and Pete) and Mille Fiori (Hoe, Katy and Andy M). Although once Laura had arrived, both Fellowship and Babylonia had begun so she joined Mille Fiori. She seemed happy enough.

In Fellowship, the three of us took on Chapter 16 - a tricky hand for a trio containing two relative newbies. But we persevered at Adam’s behest (he wanted to complete all 18 Chapters before the end of the year) and, after three attempts we nailed it! I was quietly smug and keen to try Chapter 17, but Adam checked the game and discovered the next bit was Chapter 16a and looked like quite a long endeavour.

Since Babylonia had finished at the same time as us we decided to leave 16a to another day.

Sam 163

Adam H 156

Pete 127

I remember remarking that Sam’s position on the board didn’t look like a winning one - a couple of small disparate areas, until Pete pointed out all the cities Sam had taken with his strategy.

Mille Fiori was still in full flow, and I heard Joe take a turn that went on for so long that he apologised halfway through.

The six of us played Fuji Flush and I was quietly confident, since this game is - for some reason - my strongest game. Back when we had a Division charting our results, I had a win rate of 50% which is odd for a luck-based game that usually plays five or more. I didn’t say anything, in case I made a target for my back. Plenty of dick points on display and poor old Pete seemed to have a hand made up entirely of 2s and 3s. And I won again, adding my final card - a 7 - to an already existing chain of 7s.

Next up, the six of us bided our time with 6nimmt. Adam T was hesitant to play, but didn’t have the energy or inclination to veto it. And a good thing too, as he ended up a comfortable winner.

Adam T 12

Pete 23

Adam H 24

Sam 32

Andrew 39

Chris 41

And talking of comfortable winners, here are the results from Mille Fiori.

Joe 239

Katy 217

Andy M 167

Laura 154

Joe, Andy M and Adam T left at this point and the six of us played Ito, using the chevrons from Fun Facts as a handy way of keeping track of everyone’s numbers. The categories were vague enough for some details to be clarified. Is a “popular villain” one who is generally beloved by the public, or just very well known? Good job we did check, because we got that one 100% right.

Another curio that this game threw up was when Sam’s reply to “Things that give you goosebumps” was “thinking about goosebumps”. This is about as close to breaking the fourth wall that real life can get but then Sam explained that when he started to think about what might give him goosebumps, that itself gave him goosebumps. Perfectly valid, I suppose.

Things that give you goosbumps - the lower reaches of the scale

After that, I had enough in me for one last game. We split into two groups. I played Katy and Adam at Biblios, and it went pretty much as you might expect. Halfway through I got that sinking feeling that I wasn’t very strong in anything, but it was far too late to do anything about it. And I was right. Amazingly, though, no one finished the game with any orange cards at all, meaning that die was discarded, unscored.

Katy 5 (plus brown die)

Adam 5

Andrew 0

The other end of the table played Soda Jerk which I'm afraid I was completely oblivious to.

Whiskey and soda jerk, anyone?

With that, I was done. Many thanks to everyone for another exciting year. I’ll hand back to Sam for the final part of the blogging.

*

After Andrew left we were down to a quartet - or at least I thought we were. We set up for Misfits and and then saw Pete was quietly watching us, as though not wanting to interrupt. He'd decided to get a later train home and so we redistributed the pieces and set about it. I criticised Katy for going gong-ho saboteur on her very first turn, but the structure survived, long enough to grow big enough that when it collapsed on Pete and later Laura, they were handed enough wooden pieces to start a small fire. 

Chris then drove Pete off to the station and we were left as a trio. And what better way to end the evening than three cracks at So Clover. We kicked off with a 13/18, did about the same in the second game and then finished off with a triumphant 18 in the finale, by which point Katy was sure we had played four times but Laura and I demurred. 

Now a whisky or two to the good, there was even some post-game chat comparing dysfunctional families and putting the world to theoretical rights. Midnight was not tremendously far away by this point, and after a full shift of gaming, it was time to say goodnight. Thanks all for coming, it was epic!

Playing hooky

 I arrived at 8pm, having received pics and news of the already attending players playing Fuji Flush (Martin won) and then Pairs (Martin lost then Ian lost). A nice retro start to the evening – remember when we always played these games? Happy days.

 

Two games were already in preparation when I walked into Sam’s kitchen. Sam, Adam T, Adam H and Gareth were at the beardy end of the table, setting up a game called The Staufer Dynasty.

 
Adam T gave the other three a lengthy rules explanation, during which Sam wilted visibly. Adam admitted he hadn’t played in about seven years. “Two more final things...” I heard him say as he checked something in the rule book.
 
At the other end of the table, Martin, Ian, Laura and I chose The Quest For El Dorado. It was new to Laura, so Martin gave a quick run down of the rules before we set off on our campaign of competitive exploration. Ian, Martin and I all buy a Captain, thinking its three-water value would help in what was a pretty blue map but all of us cursed its complete uselessness as we either got stuck in a desert (me and Ian) or circumnavigated it completely (Martin). Laura also got stuck in the desert and she mostly stayed there after Ian and then myself extricated ourselves from the sandy tar pit.

Martin was the first to reach the last part of the board, but then spent a turn dawdling such that Ian caught him up. One turn later, I was also on the final stretch and in a good position to win with my next go, when Ian crossed the finish line. Since he was the last player to start, the game ended immediately. Martin said he couldn’t get to El Dorado with his next cards anyway, despite being closer than me to the end so I suggested that meant that I’d actually finished 2nd because I could. Martin disagreed.

 
1. Ian
2. Martin
3. Andrew
4. Laura
 
Despite her last place, Laura seemed to like it a lot.
 
The Staufer Dynasty was still in full swing, so we dug out a game that looked for all the world like a light piece of fun. Hooky is a letter deduction game and the basic premise is that out of 26 cards with the alphabet on, three cards are removed from the game and eventually we have to deduce which letters they are. The players are dealt five cards (with letters on) each. By giving a player a five-letter word, they have to tell you how many times that their letters appear. Make notes and draw conclusions and make noises of despair while you think about what word to ask.

It was fun, although I did terribly. Another way of scoring is to guess what five letters the other players have and I was reduced to guessing letters based on personality, for example, Martin is just the kind of person to have a Q in his hand. And he did. One of the few correct guesses I made. Laura did slightly better than I did while Ian, who’d declared that he’d be surprised if he got any points at all, came second. Martin won, which is fair since he seemed to be most tortured over his choices by the end.

 
Martin 46
Ian 32
Laura 16
Andrew 15
 
Then the Staufer Dynasty ended.

 

Gareth 73
Adam T 62
Adam 61
Sam 58
 
Despite the early hour, barely past 10, I set off early having been woken by a car alarm that morning at 5.30. Laura and maybe Adam T (?) left too. The evening ended with a game of Insider Inside Job.
 

The agent won.

 
And then, of course, So Clover
 

22/24

 
Thanks all. See you again soon.

Do I look bothied?

When I arrived at Sam’s, a little before 8, I found I’d already been dealt into Fuji Flush. Weirdly, this game of luck is the only game I have any real form in so I was glad to hear it was back on the table. But I was in no position to challenge Adam, who played one double-digit card after another. His victory was assured when I snuck a joint second by joining in with his final card: an 11. Meanwhile, Sam said he had nothing bigger than an 8 for the whole game. The scores were (approximately…)

Adam 0 cards left

Joe 1

Andrew 1

Martin 1 or 2

Sam 2

Then we split into two groups. Martin, Laura, Joe and Sam played Lost Continent at one end of the table and Katy, Adam and I played Isle of Skye. Although Isle of Skye was Katy’#s game, she admitted she couldn’t really remember the rules, so Adam read them as we set up  and tiptoed unsurely through the first round (we all scored three points) until we had a better idea of what we were doing.

Katy went big on sets (farms, lighthouses and bothies, which is where the blog title was born)  as well as fretting about not being able to complete a lake. My rectangular kingdom scored big on the three-vertical-tiles reward while Adam ended the game with lots of money, but in a fairly distant last place.

Katy 84

Andrew 78

Adam 62

Adam and I tried to take the shine off Katy’s win by pointing out that she kept taking tiles out of the bag first, even when she wasn’t starting player. But she wasn’t discouraged, spending more time bonding with Laura since she’d just also just won.

That game, Lost Continents, seemed to be somewhat AP-ish, with Laura insisting that it was the most she’d ever concentrated and Martin (I think) commenting that it was an awful lot of thought for very little return.

Laura 28

Martin 24

Sam 22

Joe 22

Then there was a slight reshuffle, with the two victors swapping groups: Katy joined Joe, Martin and Sam for a game of Nokosu Dice and Laura joined me and Adam, asking for a game with dice. Eventually we decided on Las Vegas, which has plenty of dice. So many, in fact, that none of us noticed I had an extra one until we’d finished and Adam was packing it away. This made my supreme win very suspect. I magnanimously offered to dock myself $20,000 but somehow they didn’t seem impressed by my magnanimosity.

Andrew $53,000

Adam $31,000

Laura $16,000

Then Laura left and Adam and I went head to head on good old Azul. We played the free side of the board, where you can put your tiles where you like, but they still have to obey the rule of one of each colour per column/row. Adam stymied himself a couple of times, but still had enough to beat me soundly.

Azul 62

Andrew 48

After that, Katy, Adam and I left. Joe, Martin and Sam were pondering another but for me it was a dash into the night. Thanks all. See you all soon.

On the Nokosu Dice half of the table, it appeared to be a roller coaster of emotions as Katy was heard to ask, delighted, “am I winning?” only to be in the slough of despond a few minutes later. It ended in high drama, as Joe was looking hopeful for the win if he got his predicted number of tricks. Alas, he had one trump left in his hand and it won him one trick too many. If he’d made his call, he’d have won the whole thing.

Martin 66

Katy 37

Sam 33

Joe 24

Bridge or Tram! Bridge or Tram!

I arrived this week at apparently the perfect time, just as they were about to decide which game I'd want to play but now I was there, I could do it myself. How convenient. My choice was clear. Bridge or Tram. Adam (H), for whatever reason, encouraged everyone to chant “Bridge or Tram” in an attempt at unsettling me. And it did. Especially after it went on for too long. Luckily Katy was more helpful and pointed out that “Bridge” involved playing against Adam, Martin and Katy whereas “Tram” was the less dickish group of Sam, Ian and Laura. I chose Tram.

But before I get too far into the details, a quick recap of the games played before I arrived. The group got 20 out of 25 in Cross Clues and then they played Fuji Flush.

Laura 0 cards left

Martin 1

Adam, Ian, Katy 2 each

Sam 3

So, “Tram” was Lisbon Tram 28 in which you pick up passengers and put them down at point scoring destinations, using cards to move around/get fares etc. It comes with its own bell which you can ring at certain moments in the game. Ian, Laura and I started out as total newbies, picking up passengers as our cards allowed but Sam - who’d played it before - swiftly went after the bonuses: extra move, bigger tram, etc. He’d got two before he’d even thought about slowing down enough to pick up any passengers.

Sam also triggered the end of the game just as Laura and I had one last drop-off set up. How frustrating. In a fun way.

Sam 12

Ian 11

Andrew 10

Laura 9

“Bridge” was Bridges of Shangri-la which looked totally baffling and was something about students migrating and blowing up bridges.

Adam 21

Martin 19

Katy 18

Then the three of them played In White and Black to fill the time until Lisbon Tram 28 had finished. Adam looked unconvinced throughout and it ended

Martin 14

Adam -2

Katy -8

Then there was a shuffling of chairs. Martin, Laura and Sam recommenced their Quirky Circuits odyssey while Ian, Adam, Katy and I struggled to chose a game (Flamme Rouge? Downforce? Tinners’ Trail?) before choosing The Quest For Eldorado since it was the right length and Ian felt semi-confident about explaining the rules. Luckily Adam soon found an English version on-line, so we didn’t have to squint at the German or the icons and make an educated guess about their meaning.

Adam went straight for the big cards, buying up the most powerful ones and hanging around volcanoes. I did the opposite: carried along by a series of fortuitous hands, I zipped through the first three zones with barely a moment’s pause. My luck continued as I passed through the “discard three cards” tile with three cards that I was totally fine about losing. By then I had only seven cards in my deck, so the few bought cards I had were popping up regularly. Katy had the opposite effect. She’d barely discarded anything and had a monster deck that frequently left her stranded. She wasted two turns moving sideways along one rank, trying to find a way through.

Ian was in second for most of the game and helped me by blocking off the quickest way through while he waited for the right hand before he could proceed. Adam, impatient to put his speed machine into action, could only wait. In the final hex, I was two spaces from victory and had a nail biting wait to see if the others could get to Eldorado one turn before me. Luckily Adam fell short and Ian’s astonishing collection of “pick up more cards” cards meant he had almost his entire deck in his hand at the end but couldn’t close the deal. I won, and with all those barrier things in front of me, I won the tie-breaker.

Ian, red, and Katy, blue, make Adam's life difficult.

Andrew, first to Eldorado

Adam, also arrived but lost tie-breaker

Ian, nearly there

Katy, some way back

Quirky Circuits was a pretty vocal affair. Sam began by saying he felt that “In ten minutes time, Martin will be angry with me” but then a few minutes later he had his arms aloft, declaring “I’m in the right!”

One of the circuits seemed to provoke a remarkable response, with Martin saying “I did not expect that to happen” while Laura, satisfied, simply said “smashed it.” It all ended with fistbumps and Laura being referred to as “Maestro”.

I think they completed three circuits, but not sure since once El Dorado was packed away, I was out of the door and heading home. A later text from Sam told me that they (minus Laura) had played Texas Showdown.

Martin 0+2+2

Ian 2+1+2

Adam 5+1+1

Katy 2+1+5

Sam 3+7+2

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday. No, wait… See you at the games weekend! Excitement!

Eight gamers gaming

Another week of GNN. Except this was Christmas week, and previously this involved some kind of cake and a quiz by Sam but this year, all of that was passed over in favour of online gaming.

There were eight of us: Katy, Ian, myself, Sam, Martin, Andy, Steve and Anja. Once technical difficulties were ironed out we tried Fuji Flush and we were reminded how difficult it can be to explain rules online. Sat around a real table, Fuji Flush is pretty easy to understand but somehow the same can’t be said for staring at a screen. Steve professed to be confused and, as is usual when Steve insists he’s baffled, he won. The next couple of minutes were spent with people hitting the deal and recall buttons and generally behaving in a way that would get you thrown out of Vegas.

Then we split into two groups. Steve, Anja, Andy and I chose Thurn and Taxis since Steve and Anja were familiar with it and no one wanted to put them through more rules explanation. I was happy to play, having only recently played it myself. Andy is also familiar with it, mentioning that he’d played about 200 games of it on Yucata. As we began, I didn’t fancy my chances.

The other four of Katy, Martin, Ian and Sam played American Bookshop and Katy won by a country mile.

Katy 31

Sam 3

Martin 3

Ian –5

Then they played Marrakech on BGA and I can attest that it works well as a spectator sport. All the information is available meaning that you can play along with them. And I did enjoy imagining what kind of fruity language Martin came out with when he landed on Ian’s huge carpet and had to play him nine coins.

Sam 50

Ian 40

Katy 39

Martin 28

Then Sam left and the remaining three played Eggs of Ostrich while we finished off T&T.

Martin 14

Ian 9

Katy 7

Meanwhile, in Germany, I was feeling much better about my position after a 6-link route that allowed me to put down six houses. I’d been somewhat helped by Steve and Anja both having to abandon routes, which could explain their joint last place. 

Andy 28

Andrew 17

Steve 7

Anja 7

After this point, Andy left and the six of us finished off with a game of For Sale, with Steve initially daunted by some 200+ ELO ratings among us but we reassured him it was largely meaningless. Recently, a six-coin opening bid has become a classic move but this time Ian showed the power of a four-coin bid as a means of making people commit to a bun fight for treasures or pick up some trash for free.

In the end, the results more or less reflected our ELO ratings after all. And Steve and Anja tied again.

Andrew 52

Ian 47

Martin 46

Anja 40

Steve 40

Katy 27

And with that, we were done. Happy Christmas everyone. See you all soon.

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.

Kingdamnino

I "arrived" at this week's games night a little late, but had earlier popped into the group chat long enough to learn that Martin, Ian, Katy and Sam were playing a game of Love Letter. I even watched a hand or two which was pretty entertaining. Once I'd returned, the game was over and I saw that Martin had gone from joint last on 2-2-0-0 to outright winner.

Martin 4
Ian 3
Sam 3
Katy 2

For my first game, Martin introduced us to a website that allowed you to recreate your favourite card games (or even your own creation) online. He had put together a game of Voodoo Prince. It lacked the artwork of the original but the game itself remained intact. Having everyone's cursor visible on screen as a smallish coloured circle was odd since it felt like I was playing against four little Tinkerbells, all drifting around mischievously. Also dealing cards was impossible, so instead it was necessary for everyone to take the required number of cards from the stack in a flurry of Hungry Hippos type activity.

We played a three round game, and Joe joined us midway through the game as a spectator.

Katy had a commanding lead after two rounds but that didn't stop her complaining when she went out third in round three. She cheered herself up by picking up the token we were using to signify the trump suit and waving it around, much to Martin's annoyance.

Katy 29
Martin 21
Sam 18
Andrew 17
Ian 17

After this, Joe joined us for a game of Fuji Flush, again devised by Martin on this new website. The only drawback was how difficult it was to keep track of how many cards people had left. I was first to get down to my last card, but Martin was soon after me and he was able to seal the deal. Don't know how anyone else did.

Martin 0 cards left
Andrew 1
Everyone else… more than that, I suppose

After the game ended the table descended into anarchy with people moving cards around willy nilly and everyone getting a new rude name. I for one will be very disappointed if this behaviour doesn't continue once we're back in the real world.

After this, we all decamped to another site to play Fake Artist Goes To New York. This has the advantage of no one being the clue-giver, so we were all involved all the time. Joe was the first fake but couldn’t guess “bike”, then Katy was next and was able to guess “hunting” (while disputing that it should be in the ‘recreation’ category) then I was last fake and unable to guess “dish rack”.

Katy struggled with the site on her tablet, saying she had difficulty getting to things in corners. Thus her tablet was dubbed the Samsung Round, a rare circular tablet that couldn’t even scroll, apparently.

Then Katy went to see a gig online for half an hour or so while the rest of us played Just One. Not the old fashioned version with webcams and pen and paper, but a slick web-based version. It worked well, except for not eliminating a duplicate due to a spelling error. We got a few amazing correct guesses with only two clues by Ian and Martin and we finished with 10 out of 13 and the traditional snide remark: “huh, colour me impressed. Was it a fluke?”

Then Sam left and the four of us played the world’s most controversial game of Kingdomino. It was all going smoothly until the last move when Martin had first choice and a prize 3-crown tile which would fit nicely onto his board but instead when he chose it, the website selected a different and completely useless tile which probably cost him the win. He was furious, as you can imagine.

Martin (green) had chosen the lowest tile, but been given the second one

Andrew 52
Ian 47
Joe 41
Martin 37 and fuming

Katy had come back by now, but Ian and Joe left so the three of us played two games of Hanabi to finish off. It works well online, although we were able to do our usual trick of giving clues in a happy or sad tone of voice. Both times, I was the first to ruin the game by discarding a pair of values. In game two poor old Martin only got one clue for most of the game, since his hand was all threes and fours - either couldn’t be used or weren’t worth protecting.

Game one: 20 out of 25
Game two 19 out of 25

Well, it looked like we were getting worse, so we finished up there and left the internet to look after itself. Thanks all!