Halfling Cut

Saturday night, and Ian and Adam joined Stan and I for a quick-ish game of Ethnos. This is a new game that takes set collection and mixes in some area control - wrapped up in a fantasy veneer. On your turn you either pick up a card, or play a set of cards as a Band of Allies, and doing so allows you to add a control marker on the board in one of six territories. The catch is, when you play a Band, you have to discard all your other cards to the display, allowing other players to grab them...

At the end of each of three ages, the areas are scored, and your bands are scored too: larger ones take longer to put together, but will get you a lot of points. Add in some 'leader' abilities - each band has a leader - and there's enough strategy to keep it interesting. Our first time with four players was a smidgen over an hour, and my early front-running fell away with a poor third age where I tried to build a band of Halflings but got sidetracked with the Wingfolk. Whilst Adam built his presence on the board, Stan  and Ian cleaned up on the Band scoring, and the boy nabbed the win:

Stanley 96
Ian 93
Adam 91
Sam 84

His reward was instant bedtime. I enjoyed Ethnos: it's a mix of tactics and luck but plays up to 6 - and very quickly. Often you're grabbing a card á la Ticket to Ride, and cursing the presence of Halflings, who don't add anything to the board but can potentially build you a big band, as they're at it like rabbits.

We next played Barenpark. We blasted through the basic game, with no objective tiles at all, and whilst Ian got himself in a pickle with lots of spaces for toilets, Adam and I raced to finish in the same round.

I'd done enough to grab a win:

Sam 87
Adam 78
Ian 72

There was loose talk of NMBR9, but because it was still pretty early I suggested Glen More, as I imagined Adam in particular might like it. I'm not sure if he did in the end - or indeed if any of us did. It didn't help that I was slightly hazy on a couple of rules, but I think the main drawback of Glen More is its capacity for Analysis Paralysis. The hub if it is the turn order which functions like the time track in Tinners Trail, and when you move along the track you're picking up tiles and building your own personal point-scoring landscape. There's always a temptation to jump ahead to a juicy tile, but you need to think about how all your tiles interact.

I enjoyed it last time I played it but this was a bit of a grind! We should have played NMBR9, sorry guys! I did at least have the grace to finish last, and would have been even further back without Adam's help. Ian graciously pinned his victory on 'being spawn' but I'm not sure that's entirely true.

Ian 83
Adam 63
Sam 55

Thanks chaps.

Glen More and More

Chippenham, Friday night, and Paul Jefferies had made the long trip from Croydon, eager to play games. I made the much shorter one from Bristol, and Chris had to go nowhere - except to collect me from the station - as he was hosting.

Ashton, also hosting!

After a scrumptious roast courtesy of Jacquie, and some catching up, it was time to get down to the serious business of playing Glen More, our starter for the evening. We had nearly finished playing a rule slightly wrong when Andrew arrived, and saw enough of the play and general confusion to pick up what was meant to happen.

Me (blue), jumping rather far ahead

The conceit is we are competing clans in the Highlands, building a landscape of tiles, and the turn order is - like Tokaido - determined by who is the farthest back on the path. Jump far ahead to juicy tile and you're gifting other players more turns. But on the other hand, in the end-game scoring it pays to have taken the fewest tiles. Placement is key, as well, and it has a quirky scoring system. I enjoyed it a lot, but unlike the game with the rules played wrong, I didn't win:

Chris 56
Paul 44
Sam 43
Andrew 38

The Chief Chieftain now crowned, we travelled continents to another earlier time: Ninjato. This mash-up of Stone Age and something else I can't quite think of sees you raiding houses and claiming ownership of clans by bribing envoys.

Creeping around on Ninja toes

It's a slightly chaotic looking board when in play, but the mechanics are simple enough to get your head around. I put my regular thrashings by Stan behind me with a win this time:

Sam 118
Andrew 91
Chris 75
Paul 72

By which time the ale and crisps were freely flowing, except for Paul who was trying to shake off a cold. We inducted him into Barenpark, which is a game almost made for Paul.

Bears

Whilst Chris took early digger tiles and Andrew fretted over his tessellation skills, it was looking like a fight for first between Paul and I - or so I thought. But as it turned out, I wasn't really in contention:

Paul 93
Sam 79
Chris 71
Andrew 69

There was just time to, as Andrew put it, "squeeze out a quick NMBR 9" before we retired to bed. Chris ran out a comfortable leader this time, as the rest of us cursed our lack of elevation:

Chris 83
Sam 73
Andrew 57
Paul 53

And with that, the curtain fell on Chippenham for another night. Thanks all!

Goodnight!