Just One Virgin

Six eager players sat around Joe's kitchen table this week. The host was joined by myself, Adam H, Ian, Martin and Katy with Adam T expected later. There was no Sam but he was still a part of tonight as we discussed the mystery of his three year old email that had suddenly dropped into all our inboxes. It was so old that it went to people who'd long since left the mailing list and a couple contacted Joe asking if it should have gone to him instead.

But talk about where this email had been for three years was put to one side and we played L.A.M.A. to fill the time until Adam T arrived. I went clear in the first two rounds but Joe, despite an apparent inability at remembering which number followed which ("I forgot there were sixes,") went clear in round three and got rid of a ten point token.

Joe 5
Andrew 9
Martin 15
Ian 25
Katy 28
Adam 45

When Adam T arrived we split into two. Joe, Martin, Adam T and Katy played Babylonia - the table-hogging area control game from Knizia. That meant Ian, Adam H and me adjourned to the card table for slightly smaller scale fun.

We started with Can't Stop, discovering that if you can stop, the game passes by pretty serenely. Ian and I were sensible while Adam pushed his luck and failed regularly. Even though he went for sevens. Out of the four rounds we played, he succeeded only once. I, on the other hand, got lucky and closed out the 2 and 12 columns quickly before wrapping up the 8 column for a swift victory.

Andrew 3
Ian 1
Adam H 0

Then we chose Hab and Gut, which just about fitted on the table. Ian manipulated Yellows to good effect in round one but then joined me on a doomed speculation that Brown would improve dramatically in round two. It didn't.

Adam was the wisest investor but, in the final count, we discovered he didn't have to be since Ian and I both donated exactly the same amount to charity ensuring that we were both disqualified as joint least generous.

Adam H 720
Andrew 695 but OUT
Ian 520 but OUT

Midway through this game Babylonia ended…

Martin 133
Adam T 127
Joe 120
Katy 106

And they embarked on a few missions of Die Crew. I was a bit miffed that I was going to miss this game again but Martin assured me that there'd be plenty of time to catch up.

They began where they left off, on mission 9 and continued until mission 14 . Martin would read the scenario and criteria before each mission. They pondered over their co operative trick taking (notwithstanding Katy's outburst of "I won" after one successful mission) and indulged in the kind of dialogue that more science fiction should have.

"I've done it again," said Adam, sighing.

"What do you mean 'Done it again'?" asked Martin.

"You'll see," replied Adam.

Now imagine that in a block-buster CG-laden sci-fi film and you can see the appeal of the game.

Anyway, after Hab and Gut, we on the card table played Take It Easy. Categories were: Things I taped off the TV onto VHS (me), Terry Pratchett books (Ian, revisiting an old favourite) and computer games I've played (Adam). Whoever called the categories scored worse for that round, interestingly enough.

Adam 439
Ian 385
Andrew 358

This was followed by a discussion prompted by my disbelief that Sim City ever came out on the ZX Spectrum.

Then Die Crew finished and we were all together again. We needed a rousing party game to finish off. I was keen on Stinker but Cybil the dog had pissed on the floor and it was difficult to reach the game without standing on damp yellowing tissues. So Just One was chosen instead.

We were amazed and delighted to discover that it was a brand new copy brought by Joe to entertain so visitors for the forthcoming weekend. Katy revelled in the feel of a virgin pack of cards and she marvelled at the new dry wipe pens.

"Looking forward to using my rubber. Look how firm it is!" she exclaimed happily.

"It doesn't stay firm for long," said Joe, dolefully.

But double entendres aside, we whipped through the first four rounds when Joe mentioned that they've never achieved a clean sweep. Katy was not impressed because he'd mentioned this right before her turn, putting the pressure on.

But she succeeded and the correct answers kept coming (although no one managed to guess a duplicated word) until it came back to Katy at which point Joe reminded her what was at stake, causing more despair as all hopes came to rest on her shoulders.

But she rose to the occasion, got it right and all that was left was for Adam T to correctly guess the last word "pool" which he did. And by the way, kudos to whoever (Ian, I think) wrote "swimming" because this most obvious of clues wasn't duplicated. A perfect run of Just One was completed.

With history made, Ian, Katy and the two Adams left. Martin, Joe and I took on the mighty challenge of The Mind Extreme. The rules are the same except there are two suits, red and white, of 1-50 and the white cards should go up in value while the red cards should go down. And sometimes one of the piles is placed face down.

We played twice and both times got finished off by round six, a devilish level that requires both piles to be placed face down. Evil. The second time we perhaps should have used more shurikens but instead lost both our remaining lives to mere single--digit mistakes. Very cruel.

But fun. Thanks all for a lovely evening. See you next Tuesday.

Red Dead Recreation

It was the first Tuesday meet of the year for us at GNN and, after a couple of days of emails that saw the potential attendance fluctuate, we finally settled around Joe's kitchen table as a sextet: Joe, Ian, Sam, Adam, Andy and myself.

Joe was touting for players to join him in a new game, Western Legends. It received such a positive reaction that there was the chance of maxing out its six-player capacity. But it was decided that this would be foolish for a first play, so Sam, Adam and Andy went to peruse the games shelves while the rest of us got ready for some Wild West shenanigans. While Joe set up Ian and I swapped stories about our experiences on Red Dead Redemptions 1 and 2 and we found out we'd both dressed our avatars in nice clothes and spent hours playing poker. An option which, tantalisingly, was available in this board game.

The game itself is a collection of mini games, giving players the chance to gain Legendary Points for their success in poker or gold mining or killing bandits or spending money at the "theatre". Each player can good or bad and how well you do at this can also get you Legendary Points.

Two game characters clearly feeling the effects of a high wind

There's a strong sense of theme running through it and each player soon finds themselves creating their own western fable. For example, I was a Marshall, but a somewhat ineffective, comical one who spent more time at the poker table than hunting down criminals. Ian impressed us with his strategy of depositing gold at the bank and then immediately trying to rob the bank. Joe started by buying a big hat and then he hung around town until he robbed Ian of gold (he took half, rounded up, just like real bandits did, I expect).

Ian was first to hit the game ending score of 15 legendary points and in the final round (which saw both Ian and I race across Dixons Creek to spend money on enjoying the "cabaret") he saw off a late challenge from Joe.

Ian 26
Joe 19
Andrew 12

It was a fun game and I perhaps should have taken my peace keeping duties more seriously. Joe and Ian, however were much better at being rough tough rootin' tootin' outlaws.

On the other half of the table, the others had chosen Hab & Gut. It required a little ingenuity to decide how to best arrange the racks of cards but once they did, the whole thing went smoothly.

What with a new game in front of me I didn't pay Hab & Gut much attention, but even I couldn't miss Adam's good natured frustration at donating least to charity by a margin of only fifteen marks.

Sam 715
Andy 625
Adam OUT! He didn't even bother counting up how much he had.

After this I think we in America were barely starting, so they started another game, Tag City. Sam's artwork had an air of Keith Haring about it, so I made sure to take a snap.

Adam 66
Sam 51
Andrew 50

Sam said that Adam handed out a bit of a pasting. Perhaps he should have said "a bit of a painting." A ha ha. Oh, my sides.

Next up, they tried Wordsy, the game of word creation with limited means. Andy failed to come up with a word at all in round one but a bad round or two is of no consequence in this game and he was right on Sam's shoulder by the end.

Sam 99
Andy 94
Adam 84

Then, while perusing the rules they discovered that they had got one wrong. So, since it was already there in front of them, they played again.

Sam 121
Andy 115
Adam 100

Finally, we were all together again and a six player finale was in order. For Sale was suggested, but Texas Showdown won the day. So, Ian, Joe and I metaphorically put our stetsons and tassled suede jackets back on as we embarked on our second wild west themed game of the evening.

It was a game of cruel fate, as you might expect, but also of surprising discoveries. Namely, the fact that Joe has two automated card shufflers, one for the home and one for the studio. Astonishing. And well done to Ian for not opening his final beer so late in the day.

As for the game, Adam fell into an early slump, only to be replaced by Ian who picked up four then three tricks in consecutive rounds. Then, right at the end Joe picked up five tricks to propel himself into last.

As for the race for first, it was always Andy. There was one round (the penultimate one) when he shared the lead with Sam but then he went clear while Sam picked up a solitary trick allowing Andy to seal the win.

Andy 5
Sam 6
Andrew 8
Adam 9
Ian 10
Joe 12

And so we ended. And at a relatively sensible time (ie, not nearly midnight) too. Thanks to all. It was special.

You wait ages for a dead man and then four come along at once

This week's gaming bonanza took place at Joe's house and consisted of eight gamers: Joe, Sam, Martin, Katy, Ian, Chris, Matt and me. We split into two groups. Ian, me, Joe and Martin went for Tichu, the red hot gaming craze of the age with Ian and Martin sticking together to see if their winning streak could continue. Katy, Sam, Matt and Chris chose the other red hot gaming craze of the age, Azul.

Our game of Tichu got underway without any real fuss (if you don't include the rearranging of chairs around the collapsible card table) since we all knew the rules. Martin got off to a flier, completing two Tichus while Joe failed his, which meant after two rounds the score was 335 to - 35. A healthy lead for Martin and Ian.

But there's no such thing as a healthy lead in Tichu and after two wins for Joe and I and a failed Tichu by Ian, the scores at the end of round four were 250 to 250. Amazing. With Azul coming to an end, we played one more hand as a decider. Martin called Tichu and failed, but he and Ian scored so many points for cards that most of the loss was erased. Most, but not all.

Joe & Andrew 260
Ian and Martin 240

On the big table, Chris was getting a rules explanation of Azul. It's a simple enough game and it seemed he got the hang of it quickly since Katy tried really hard to not be patronising when she told him that he was doing very well for a first-timer.

Katy emphasises her pig-tails which will, apparently, soon be gone.

At the end of the game, where they exhausted the supply of tiles, Katy played a spoiling tactic against Sam which was so blatant that she felt the need to apologise. While laughing, admittedly, but an apology nevertheless.

Katy 91
Sam 74
Chris 71
Matt 46

At this point, we were all between games, so there was a little bout of discussion. Katy was pitching for Lords Of Vegas, but no one was keen. Sam got four for Whistle Stop (himself, Ian, Chris and Matt) and the rest of us agreed to my suggestion of Hab & Gut.

It's been a while since it has been seen at a GNN night and Katy needed a full rules explanation. In the game itself, coal shot up in price and stayed there, firmly lodged against the top of the exchange rate for all of the second half of the game making it effectively worthless to us, having sold all our coal shares thinking it wouldn't get much higher.

Katy struggled with the rule about giving to charity. She thought she'd given enough at the end of the first round, only to find she was 200 Marks behind everyone else.

Martin kept buying shares I wanted, meaning I often ended up taking less than the optimal three and having to make do with Martin's leftovers. Plus, it meant any decision that helped me, helped Martin too. A terrible situation.

Martin 1205
Joe 875
Andrew 775
Katy OUT! Not pious enough! (but had 840)

Whistle Stop was still under way so we banged out a quick Potato Man. The most notable event was round three when all the cards were played and the scores fell in such a way that we were all tied on fourteen points. All except Katy, who had ten. The fourth round proved to be the decider.

Andrew 18
Joe 16
Martin 16
Katy 13

I'm afraid I know little about the shenanigans in Whistle Stop, but long after the scores were totted up and noted, I got an email from Chris saying they'd forgotten a rule in the latter stages that meant Sam should've scored an extra twenty points, thus his slim victory was invalid. This kind of honesty is worth thirty points in my opinion! But thirty points in life. Not in Whistle Stop. So Sam's victory stands.

Sam 130
Chris 115
Matt 111
Ian 94

With evening having firmly drawn in, we ended with a rousing and odds-defying game of Dead Man's Chest. It was Chris's first game and sadly, despite all our experience, a swift and effective rules explanation of this simple game eludes us. It is a grim truth that anyone's first game of Dead Man's Chest is a learning game.

And what lessons it taught us all! I got an early Dead Man and knocked a gem off Joe. Then the players started to be eliminated.

Katy, out when Martin challenged her bet
Chris, out when he challenged by accident by opening the box
Martin, out when I roll Dead Man and call 3-3. Joe passed it on saying 4-4. Martin challenged.
Matt, out when Sam called 3-3. Matt challenged. Another Dead Man!
Ian out when Joe shook the box, looked, shook again and then bid Dead Man. Ian challenged. It was Dead Man! Amazing!
Joe out when he challenged my bid of 1-1.
Andrew out when Sam bid 3-3. I sensed a bluff, since 3-3 had become the preferred bid if you roll Dead Man so I challenged. It was 5-5.
Sam wins!

What an astonishing end to the evening. Isn’t it great to have a hobby where this kind of thing happens all the time.

You don’t Hab to be Gut to work here

This Monday's gaming began in confusion, with Sam texting thirty minutes before we were due to begin that he wasn't feeling well, and he'd have to cancel. Then, just five minutes later he texted again saying that he'd battle through, and we should come as planned. This meant I was walking back and forth along Zetland Road, checking my phone for updates.

Sam had initially planned on getting a few new games to the table, but in his slightly groggy state, he asked that we stick to old familiars. And so we began with 7 Wonders, a game so familiar that I barely need to describe it.

Andy went for sciences and guilds, and I tried to get lots of money by getting a monopoly on the refined materials. Sam went for war but Ian found himself in a pickle, coming into the final round with almost no money. My last-minute attempt to overthrow Sam's military empire fell short and Andy took the win by copying one of my guilds.

Andy 54
Sam 50
Andrew 45
Ian 39

Then we play Hab & Gut. It was new to Ian, so we went through the rules for him, coming up with a little variant of our own. Each player gets to choose which cards dealt to them go on which racks. This allows you to control who get to see the cards you hold. It added a little strategic something, and may become a GNN house rule if others try it and like it.

Sam's choice of cards he wanted to share with me.

As for the game itself, black and red were expensive, white collapsed and yellow barely moved at all. Just like the real thing! Sam was over-confident in his donations. He’d made the most donations after round one, with 300 whatever they are (marks, I suppose). At the time Ian had pledged only 80. But in the final count, Ian had suddenly seen the light. He donated 405. Sam had only given 105 in the final round, making him the least pious among us and, therefore, out. His score would have been an impressive 850.

Andrew 580
Andy 340
Ian 245
Sam OUT!

We had half an hour remaining, so for our last game we chose Love Letter. Andy and I shot off into a 2-2-0-0 lead. Sam and Ian pegged us back to 2-2-1-1, until the inevitable happened and Andy won his third round. A game with very few successful guesses when people played Guard cards. Unless I was the King, in which case they usually got me.

Andy 3
Andrew 2
Sam 1
Ian 1

A lovely end to the evening. And Sam made it through to the end without falling asleep or throwing up, which is surely the cherry on the cake.

Duff and Chuff

This week, seven gamers gathered together under rainy skies to forget about the struggles of life in favour of some entirely self-inflicted struggles of our own.

Adam and Hannah hosted, with Sam, me, Gonz, Martin and Joe in attendance. At first, while Adam and Hannah ate their supper, Sam and Martin began with a quick game of The Hive.

At first, Martin corrected Sam on a rule: that when placing a piece, it must be next to one of your own tiles. Some minutes later, another look at the rules clarified this: you cannot place a piece that touches an opponents piece. They started again. Then they saw the rule that you cannot move a piece until your fourth piece has been placed. The game was abandoned in despair. Still, it’s almost as if Sam has a new game! I wonder what it’s like.

We split into two groups. I had texted Joe earlier to ask him to bring Hab & Gut, and when it was suggested, I was pleased to see it get a favourable reaction. Adam, Gonz and Martin chose Kingdom Builder, and set off into the other room, while the rest of us got ready for a little Hab & Gut.

Hannah had never played before, so Joe explained the rules. We wheeled and dealed in the six commodities which, at the end of the first round of fluctuating prices, were almost in a line across the board just a few spaces further on from where they’d started.

Into the second round, and people started getting cagey about when to donate to the church. Whenever someone decided to donate, the other players would tut annoyed at having to play our dues. In the final count, Hannah donated the most, and I donated the third largest amount, allowing me to avoid the wrath of the church.

Andrew £625
Sam £550
Hannah £420
Joe OUT!

In the next room, they’d played one game of Kingdom Builder and had started on another game.

So we filled in the time with a round of Biblios. Much like Hab & Gut, a glut of church cards sent several dice values soaring, and while I did my best to bring them back down again, I wasn’t at all confident of my chances, having only really enough to secure the red dice with its lowly “2”.

As we totted up the scores, we saw how well Joe had played the game: he’d kept pushing up the value of the orange die so that no one else went for it. He picked it up with a score of just three. On the other hand, he did mistime his spending, which meant he was able to bid 13 gold on the last useless card. I got a stroke of luck when I picked up greens to go with my reds, giving me a winning score.

Andrew 5
Hannah 4 (wins on browns)
Sam 4 (wins on blues)
Joe 4

The Kingdom Builder people were strangely coy about sharing the results but the positions were:

Game one: Gonz, Adam, Martin
Game two: Martin, Gonz, Adam.

I think that’s right. I'm still waiting to get the results.

By now we were all together again, and Joe suggested a seven-player game of Take It Easy: the game where you really don’t take it easy at all. He had procured a second set, which meant that up to eight could play! Newbies had the rules explained to them, and we were off!

Take It Easy: the reaction of Martin (top right) indicates

that the tile he needs has not been drawn from the bag.

Being so simple and yet so agonising, it was probably more fun to listen to the agonised wails or curious squeaks of your opponents than it was to play the game. Suffice to say, a lot of those noises game from Gonz who sounded like he was slowly deflating as the game wore on. The rest of us took turns to display bullish confidence and angst-ridden despair. After three rounds, the final scores were

1. Sam 485
2= Joe 457
2= Martin 457
3. Adam 445
4. Andrew 432
5. Hannah 411
6. Gonz 326

What a great game! Sam, Gonz and I went off early, but the remaining four were discussing what to play next, so there’s still more to come for this report. (EDIT: Joe has updated us in the comments below)

With the scores from the last game of the evening in, the form table looks like...

						Points
Martin	1	2	1	3	2	9
Andrew	4	1	1	2	1	9
Sam	1	3	2	2	4	12
Adam	2	3	3	2	3	13
Joe	3	2	4	4	1	14
Steve	3	3	1	5	5	17
Gonz	6	1	2	5	5	19
Hannah	5	2	3	5	5	20
Anja	2	4	5	5	5	21

Martin leaps to the top on the best-most-recent-score rule.

And the blog title came from Sam’s description of his board during a round of Take It Easy. Something like that anyway. I can’t remember that either. I really need to start taking notes...

Crashes in markets and in space

Joe’s place! Seven o’clock! Me, Sam and Joe were first there and, after some chat with Charlotte about holidays, the three of us decided on a game of Coup. “It’s leaderboard, right?” asked an eager Sam. His eagerness didn’t last as he was first out after a couple of rounds. In the end, I prevailed over Joe and was consequently appalled when Joe asked “That’s not leaderboard, though, is it?” It is.

1. Andrew
2. Joe
3. Sam

Then there was a very welcome return for an old regular: Quentin arrived, and Coup was given a second run out. Thus began Joe’s descent into a dark pit of gaming anguish. He came last, followed by Quentin, then Sam edged me out as I unsuccessfully challenged his final move.

1. Sam
2. Andrew
3. Quentin
4. Joe

Next we discussed our next game. Since there were five of us, it was the perfect number to try Space Alert! from the makers of Galaxy Trucker. I was surprised that Adam agreed to another co-op game so soon after Pandemic but he did, so off we went!

Our glorious team... before the game started

We went through the rules, with Joe mercifully skipping over the amusing commentary between important bits, and then we launched ourselves into the tutorial game. We won admirably, with two turns to go, and were confident enough to go straight into the second mission.

Here we became a little undone. I, as communications officer, had put back the deck of enemy ships back the way they were. This meant that halfway through I had to replace the fleet of familiar ships bearing down on us with complete new and unknown enemy ships bearing down on us, and we didn’t have enough time to take in their special attack or defence powers.

Adam mashes the fire button (A).

And do you know why we didn’t have enough time? Because Captain Joe’s daughters needed to use the laptop, or wanted to know where the salt was. Meanwhile, without our good captain’s guidance, we didn’t know what to do. There seemed to be a lack of people able to use guns, and an awful lot of people able to use lifts. In the end, Sam only used three of his potential seven moves, while Quentin, Adam and I only placed cards until move five, leaving Captain Joe to fend off the enemies more or less by himself. We died.

After our failed mission, the disgruntled crew laid the blame at Captain Joe’s feet for not steering us to glory. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. I like games which have a narrative, and Space Alert!, at the very least, tells an absurd story of space exploration where people just press buttons because they happen to be there at the time, or needlessly shoot lasers into the inky void of outer space. Sam, though, didn’t seem totally in love with it, and after this he went back home, feeling a little under the weather.

After this, with the evening progressing, we went for Hab & Gut. This was Quentin’s first attempt at the game, so Joe taught him the rules. Not entirely accurately because Joe started by saying that the cards needed to be shuffled but then told Quentin not to shuffle those cards he’d been shuffling for the past five minutes.

Quentin's shuffling skills... wasted!

At last, with shuffled cards shuffled and sorted cards sorted, we began. We bought, we manipulated. We sold, we manipulated again. At the end of the first round, Adam was in a distant last regarding donations, with barely £75 on the board. I was sitting pretty with £200, so I went into the second round with high hopes. Joe, meanwhile, decided to invest in coal, and drove the price down. Alas, he drove it down to zero – at which point no one can buy those shares. After this, no one touched coal, leaving Joe’s plans in tatters.

Finally, we counted up the scores before working out the donations. I was in first, with Adam, then Joe then Quentin. When we calculated the donations, Joe was appalled to find he was least devout player, and relegated to last. Quentin stole a creditable third on his first go, and Adam complimented me on my play. A high honour, indeed.

Andrew 830
Adam 775
Quentin 510
Joe OUT (but scored 670)

With two last places and a destroyed spaceship full of dead friends, this must have been one of Joe’s less successful gaming nights. It was a lot of fun though. Unfortunately, the Form Table doesn’t have a sense of humour...

I leap to the top. Hopefully, Quentin will be keen to send himself up the table and we'll see him again soon.

						Points
Andrew	1	2	1	3	1	8
Sam	1	3	1	3	4	12
Adam	2	4	4	2	1	13
Joe	4	4	2	2	2	14
Steve	3	3	3	4	3	16
Hannah	3	4	1	4	5	17
Anja	2	5	1	5	5	18
Miles	2	3	5	5	5	20
Quentin	3	3	5	5	5	21
Lizzy	2	5	5	5	5	22

And in the monthly division, I'm top too! Admittedly, I've played more than anyone, but dedication reaps it's own rewards. Hannah takes points ratio, and Sam is first on the medal table.

Oh, and one last thing before I go. I recently bought an X-box, because I had some old games I wanted to play. First thing I did was to rename all the computer-controlled characters in Conker: Live and Reloaded to something more familiar. See if you can find yourself...

Gut Times

Joe hosted, and Sam, Adam myself and occasional attendee Will were available. We convened, happy and healthy, ready for an evening's entertainment. The usual teetering pyramid of choices was absent, instead Joe had brought down four or five possibilities. One of these, Hab and Gut, seemed popular and easy to explain to Will, so it was chosen.

This game of imperfect knowledge and wheeler dealing is a fun version of the German stock exchange, where you can pretend that the racks of cards are gossip from insider traders that you can use to manipulate the market.

But I struggled early on. I watched as brown (Coffee? Hessian? Driftwood?) rocketed in price, but I clung on to my belief that my whites and yellows were fine. Which they kind of were, but not enough to make my donations good enough for God, so I came last.

New boy Will came a respectable third, while Joe put everything into not coming last and, so, came fourth. In the end, we were aghast at Sam and Adam's mastery of the markets, as both came out with over one thousand points, with Adam taking a comfortable win in fine style.

Adam 1660
Sam 1295
Will 910
Joe 780
Andrew OUT! Not pious enough!

After this, Adam kindly agreed to play High Society, his bête noire, his bogey team, his Kryptonite. At least, that's what we all thought. Meanwhile, Joe bid high for a 10 point card, but then lost it at the end, when he had no money left to avoid picking up the "lose a card" card. Will ended with least money, while Adam somehow defeated his curse and came out on top.

Adam 10
Andrew 9
Sam 6
Joe 0
Will OUT! Not rich enough!

It was still early(ish) and, you know, it's been a few weeks since we'd had a flurry of silly light games, and so we were in the mood for 6nimmt. This was also new to Will, but it's so simple that we thought it wouldn't be a huge burden. Turns out we were wrong – he came last. But the rest of us had fun, and that's what games are all about, right guys?

Adam ended a good evening with his third win in a row.

Adam 11
Sam 28
Joe 41
Andrew 42
Will 70

On the form table, Adam leaps to first place with his trilogy of conquests.

						Points
Adam	1	1	1	5	3	11
Sam	2	3	2	3	3	13
Hannah	2	1	4	2	5	14
Anja	1	1	3	5	5	15
Andrew	4	2	5	2	2	15
Steve	4	4	4	2	1	15
Joe	3	4	4	1	4	16
Jon	2	3	5	5	5	20
Will	5	5	3	5	5	23

Meanwhile, in Bracknell, Paul notched up his first win of the season by turning green and muscular and tipping the table over during Tikal.

Paul 124
Chris 104
James 98

Actually, in the email Chris sent to me, he said that Paul's tactic of hoarding goods served him well. I thought, "Didn't Paul do well at that zombie apocalypse game too?" So if there's ever a national crisis that involves staying indoors all day, I know where I'm heading.

Alas, Paul's incredible hulk-like adventure didn't last and by the time they set up 7 Wonders, he was a gaming Bruce Banner again. James stole the win from Chris by a narrow margin.

James 48 (and 10 money)
Chris 48 (and 1 money)
Paul 39

Ain't nothing wrong… with a little Hab 'n' Gut

Another tuesday, another games night: and the first meeting at the Berger house for a while. Andrew and Sam arrived promptly at 7.30 - Sam had brought a cornucopia of games, mostly playing a maximum of four people. I had dug out a few four-player options, plus Hab & Gut in case we were five. However, we didn't yet have a clear idea of who else to expect; Anja certainly, but Steve had been unwell. Hannah was definitely out, but Adam was shilly-shallying. So while we waited for news, the three of us played Rattlesnake. In my experience the start player often wins this unique and quite silly game. However, we each had a go at starting, and Sam won all three games! Pity it wasn't leaderboard, but he wins the 'Snake-charmer' achievement this week.

While we were playing, Adam texted to say he wasn't going to make it - shock-horror - but Anja and Steve were on their way, so we knew we were catering for a total of five. We three took the executive decision to set up Hab & Gut, and once the others arrived, we jumped straight in.

H&G is a delightfully simple game, and though Steve professed bafflement at first (always a worry - he tends to win shortly after uttering these words), within a couple of rounds it had clicked. It was also Anja's first game, but as usual, after asking a couple of astute questions, she was exhibiting all the signs of quiet confidence and keeping her own counsel.

At the mid-way point, church donations were revealed, and Andrew and Sam had both left offerings in the 400s, leaving the other three of us trailing. As Andrew pointed out, you want to have donated second from least to the church by the end of the game - just enough to keep you from getting kicked out, but having saved most of your money for your score. It was wise advice, and I decided to heed it.
The second round was a tricky affair; Andrew and I had a rack of almost all minus amounts, and the rack between me and Steve wasn't much better. In the final turn, Andrew sold two reds for a 500 note, and his win looked assured - we could only hope that he may have under-donated. But then Sam took his last turn, and cashed in 750 worth of shares! Since they couldn't both lose to the church, one of them was clearly the winner.

The moment when the church donations are revealed the second time is most exciting, and there was an interesting spread; Anja, despite her atheism, had been generous to a fault, offering 765. Sam, Andrew and I had donated 660, 645 and 605 respectively, but Steve had offered only 420, and was out of the running entirely.

Over- and under-donating are mistakes that had cost me my first two games of Hab & Gut, but it does seem to get easier to judge. Anja had asked if there was a figure to aim for, and I can't say for sure that there is - it's all down to the prevailing group-think, perhaps. That said it's interesting that the three of us who had played a couple of times before all offered similar amounts.

Sam's big haul in the last round, coupled with some canny wheeling-and-dealing earlier on saw him into first place with a comfortable lead of 250 over second-placing Andrew. I came third, Anja fourth and Steve didn't bother to count up, having incurred the wrath of the church - he didn't think that he would have been in the running though.

Sam 785
Andrew 535
Joe 465
Anja 385
Steve OUT

Hab & Gut remains a firm favourite with me, despite the fact that I haven't ever won - it's simple, clever and intriguing, and doesn't eat up a whole games-evening. Once we'd packed away It was 9.40pm, and we wondered what to tee-up next.

Sam was keen to play new trade Arkadia with three, leaving two others in search of a game. We briefly considered other five-player options, but most were deemed to light and fluffy, and it was a little late to start on another 'proper' five-player game.

Having recently acquired Castles of Burgundy, I was itching to try it out, and it seemed to fit the bill with Anja too, so we left the other three setting up Arkadia and distributed the myriad bits of Burgen von Burgund across our side of the table. There's lots of set-up, but the rules are relatively easy to grasp, and we were probably under way by 10pm.

It's the kind of Euro that I feel as though we haven't played much of lately, where you're building up a little empire, rather than knocking other people down (don't get me wrong, I love knocking other people down too, probably more than most GNN-ers, but I like to do it in open confrontation rather than under the guise of trading in the Mediterranean. Oh okay, I probably like that too).

Unusually for a Stefan Feld game, there are no punishments - even Macao has minus points for having cards un-played at the end - you're really just trying to maximise your little estate, with no plague-rats, mongol hordes or other calamities to worry about (they're probably in an expansion). Your dice give you 2 actions per turn, and you can use them to acquire tiles of six different colours from the communal board, in the hopes of later adding them to your burgeoning estate. Blue ship tiles allow you to trade goods and jump up in turn order, grey mine tiles give you money at the beginning of each phase, and dark green castles give you a single extra action. Light green add livestock to your pastures, scoring you instant points, beige buildings offer an immediate one-off benefit, whilst yellow knowledge tiles give lasting, rule-breaking enhancements.

Points come in various ways; trading goods, adding animals and some buildings - but the big points are scored by completing sections of your estate. The earlier in the game you achieve this the better, and the points also rise exponentially depending on the number of tiles in the region you complete, from 1VP for a single hex region, to 36 VP for an eight hex region.

The box says 30-90 mins, but there is a very clear in-game indicator, and we were not quite half way through the game at 11pm. Arkadia was wrapping up, so Anja and I agreed to play to the end of the third of five phases. Going in to the last round of that third phase I had a comfortable lead, but Anja managed to complete a five hex region of her estate and swept past me for the win. This achievement was slightly mitigated by the discovery, several phases in, that she had been playing one of her knowledge tiles as far more powerful than it actually was. But that's fine with me - you know me and the leaderboard; there's little love lost between us.

Anja 70
Joe 64

If a goldfish had to play Castles of Burgundy...

Castles of Burgundy was a hit with both of us, and judging by the chat from across the table, Arkadia went down well too - Sam will doubtless fill us in on the details, but the final scores were:

Sam 120
Steve 95
Andrew 88

A good night; shame to leave that last game unfinished, but very chuffed to have given it a spin, and to play Hab & Gut again. Until next time - roll high!
(unless rolling low is, you know, better in the particular game you're playing . . .)

JB

Ersby, here. A little late, but here is the form table. Sam strides to the top, leaving Adam cursing his decision to make a bird costume instead of defending his lead. It's all to play for behind the two front runners, though. Also, it's worth noting that if our games of Rattle Snakes had been Leaderboard, then Sam would have a perfect five points, and also that Anja also has a perfect score of sorts: each of the five places (1st to 5th) are represented in the five spaces in the form table. Hoorah and Haroo!

						Points
Sam	1	1	2	1	2	7
Adam	1	3	1	1	1	7
Steve	2	5	4	1	1	13
Andrew	3	2	3	2	3	13
Joe	2	3	2	4	3	14
Hannah	4	3	4	1	2	14
Anja	1	4	3	2	5	15
Dan	1	5	5	5	5	21

Deep Space Nein

With all the gaming over the last few days there was a chance of becoming jaded. Indeed Adam admitted that 12 and a half hours of the weekend had obliged him to take Monday night off. But thankfully by Tuesday he was back, chomping at the bit. Sadly Steve and Anja were late withdrawals but that still left Adam, Andrew, Joe and me (Sam) sat in my kitchen pondering our first move.


Or our second, actually, as while Adam ate his chips the three of us indulged in a game of Biblios, the game where you discard resource cards to pick up gold in order to buy resource cards. It is kind of counter-intuitive and for our second game (Joe's first) we still didn't really have a clue what the best strategy was. I was trying to collect just two resource colours, but whether that was decisive in my victory only the Lord knows. I think we were all under the impression we'd done badly, but I'd done less badly than the others. It's that type of game.

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Joe 2

That 20 minute warm-up back in the box, and Adam's chips making their way safely along various intestinal tracts, we moved on the the first big (ish) game of the evening: Hab and Gut. This had gone down well last night and Adam was eager to try it. We all sat stunned at his capacity to take in the two racks of secret cards without moving his head from side to side like human beings do. He merely let his eyes twitch, lizard style, as the resource markers trundled up and down the value tracks. Maybe Tom Cruise is right after all.

Hab and Gut feels like a gem; quite a find by Joe. A little like High Society, the player who donates the least cash to the church is out of the running, even if they're the richest, which put paid to Andrew on this occasion. I managed to wangle first place due to my unrelenting passion for rubber and coffee:

Sam 1130
Joe 670
Adam 580
Andrew OUT!

German stock-market engineering out of the way, we decided to finish the night with Adam's choice of Galaxy Truckers. This game of puzzle-solving against the clock, with a smidgen of strategy and a veritable cheese wheel of luck hasn't been out of the box in a while, but we were familiar enough with it - barring Adam's aliens-in-round-one faux pas - to start constructing our ships as if we'd been in space all along, adding our battery packs to our lasers in the much the same way they do at NASA, I imagine.

Adam made the early running and was in a strong position in round two. Then in round three, despite building the most ramshackle spaceship on show I hit a lucky streak a mile wide: shunted to the front in space I picked up a series of charitable cards and collected about twenty credits and 7 or 8 bits of cargo. Joe then sped past me in time to take all the crappy cards before I hit another slab of jarlsberg on the last card (open space) when I powered back into the lead and took the spawniest victory since... probably the last time we played Galaxy Truckers:

Sam 98
Adam 64
Andrew 41
Joe 30

So another fine night comes to end with Adam and I tied on the leaderboard as Joe and Andrew drop below Steve and Hannah. But it's tight.

						Points
Sam	1	1	1	3	3	9
Adam	2	3	1	1	2	9
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Joe	4	2	3	1	1	11
Andrew	3	4	2	2	2	13
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14

Guten Tag, Hab unt Gut

Perhaps jealous of our nine-hour game binge this weekend, Joe suggested we meet at his place for a little pre-games night gaming. Perhaps unsatisfied by our nine-hour game binge this weekend, Sam and I agreed.

It was just the three of us. We began with Hab unt Gut, a game set the exciting world of the German stock exchange. In this game, one has to buy and sell shares to make the most money, but beware! Are you bewaring? Good, because you also have to donate money to the church. The player who donates least automatically loses, no matter how much money they have. Of course, donating to the church lessens your overall score, so it's a delicate balancing act between cold-hearted greed and trying to buy your way into heaven.

In the end, Joe miscalculated how much he needed to donate and game in last, giving Sam and I first and second respectively.

Sam 655
Andrew 525
Joe OUT! (but for the record, he had 1,160)

Next to the table was Manila. Another game involving the value of goods, but this is more to do with the black market and a bit of pirating. At one point Joe was almost broke and only had two shares in front of him. It looked like another bleak evening for this season's kicking boy.

But then, a miracle occurred! Joe's pirates got hold of a ship and netted him a handsome return. Suddenly, he was Mr Moneybags, and Sam and I were the ones facing a stint in the poorhouse. We never recovered from that, and Joe made his advantage count, running out as the winner in a close game.

Joe 77
Sam 72
Andrew 68

The night was still young (about half past ten) so a quick game of No Thanks was suggested. This game of bluff, risk-taking, and counting is always a favourite.

I was a bit thrown by Sam and Joe making noises of disgust whenever I sent a card I wanted round the table to pick up more chips. They seemed to think it was ungentlemanly. Not that it made much difference.

Joe 37
Andrew 57
Sam 62

We went for one more game of No Thanks, and the pattern was pretty much repeated. Cards we wanted never turned up or were taken by other players. 32, especially, was noted for it's absence in both games. Especially by Sam.

Joe 59
Andrew 75
Sam 84

A sterling performance by Joe, hurling himself up the form table.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Andrew	2	2	3	2	3	9
Joe	1	1	1	3	4	10
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	3	2	1	3	12
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14