Spy Power

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

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

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

Ian 3

Sam 2 (and four filled potions)

Joe 2, Laura 2, Andrew 2, Martin 2

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

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

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

Martin 75

Andrew 58

Laura 48

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

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

Andrew 15

Martin 14

Laura 13

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

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

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

Joe and Andrew, I spy with my little eye

Sam, Martin and Ian, Blind Man’s Buff

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

Martin 16

Joe 16

Ian 3

Sam 2

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

Root’s Revival

 At around 8 o'clock I arrived at Sam's to find Ian, Sam, Martin and Adam T playing a game apparently based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, except instead of themes of redemption and charity, it was a trick taking game. 

In this crazy game players have three areas in front of them (past, present and future) which they can play to whenever they please, following suit as in a typical trick taking game, except that they are resolved in chronological order. This means a win in the past makes you leader in the present which may well change which cards are powerful and which aren't.

It looked nuts. And, from the same author as Maskmen, it clearly was. In a shortened version of the game, Ian leapt into the lead right at the end.

Ian 10

Martin 9

Sam 7

Adam 6

Then Steve arrived and we split into two groups of three. Adam slyly suggested Root and Sam was amenable even if "I doubt we'll find a third." Steve at this point was still in the living room taking about grown up things to Sally but he indicated his assent without actually coming into the kitchen.

Ian, Martin and I chose Azul, with Martin keen to see if we'd finish it before the end of Steve's rules refresher. We didn't, mostly because we played a slow thinky game. Martin started out well, perhaps because of his penchant for the starting player tile. I got bogged down with a board that I struggled to finish, so I started taking the starting player tile in the hope that it would improve my position. It didn't, but when Ian took the tile in the final round it seemed like the winning move.

Except when he came to count up his score for the round, we discovered he had two black tiles on one row. We moved one black tile to its proper place and put the other in the rack of negative tiles along the bottom, quickly adjusting his score as we did so. Not ideal but, as we said at the time, no one had noticed. And if we had, then Ian would've had other options he could've chosen. In the end it was a win for Ian but, as Martin said, a win with an asterisk.

Ian 64

Martin 62

Andrew 48

Root was still ongoing and we entered what could be called a period of overlapping games. We began a game of Spy Communication, they finished Root, we began a second game of Spy Communication, they played Full Throttle. Eventually we synced up again and ended on So Clover.

Root ended with a decisive win for Adam. Perhaps we should have seen that coming right at the start when Martin commented on how long it will last and Adam airily said "oh, not really." Steve was close to becoming dominant, which maybe I understood once but now haven’t the foggiest, and Sam was probably about to pounce on a game winning move too. And all in under ninety minutes.

Adam (Marquis de Cat) 32

Sam (the Vagabond) 20

Steve 14 (Eyrie Dynasties) 14

Spy Communication was so simple that for most of the first game I was sure we were playing it wrong. In this game we guided our spies around Europe using little counters as stepping stones, visiting cities to complete certain bonus cards. Sounds simple, but those stepping stones are in short supply and if you want to travel down a pathway already claimed by an opponent, you have to pay double. I squeaked a win by triggering the game end by completing seven (low scoring) cards.

Andrew 30 (won tie breaker based on turn order)

Ian 30

Martin 29

We finished our first game using the beginner's side and then decided to try the on advanced side, where cards are more expensive unless you have none in which case the next card is free and Martin used this to excellent effect, but Ian won with some high scoring cards. The only asterisks on this victory were to disguise the swearwords I was trying to suppress.

Ian 31

Martin 28

Andrew 22

Full Throttle sped by without catching my attention apart from constant amazement at red's lack of movement. Black won, with orange second and yellow completing almost and entire lap to finish third. Sam’s trust in red was sorely misplaced.

Adam 23

Steve 21

Sam 7

Finally, So Clover was tough. Not a single six among us. Our successes included guessing Vampire/Shed were linked to “Coffin” and Prison/Delivery was “Convicts.” I was kicking myself as I clued Roof/Distribution with "Satellite" when I later realised that "Santa" would've been better. Ian had to cope with us pyschoanalysing him when one of his clues was "treat" and we had to guess which of the available words Ian might consider to be a treat.

We scored 23.

And with that we were done. A lovely evening.