Discussion of Pants on Line

Oh dear - I was supposed to do the blog for last Tuesday, and what with one thing and another I haven’t got round to it, and it’s Tuesday again tomorrow!

So I’ll make this short and sweet…

At one point we thought we might have just three, comprising me, Martin and my friend Matt, who is an occasional visitor. But in the event we were up to 7, as Gareth and Andy Bate arrived with Martin, and Steve and Adam H trickled in a little later.

We played Rapido whilst waiting for Steve. I had the sort of game I’ve seen others have before, where luck smiled on me repeatedly and I made steady progress round the board. Others had markedly worse luck, with one of them (Adam?) back on the starting block by the time I rolled a double three and romped home. This was the only thing I thought to take a photo of all evening - funny that! Martin noted that I’d scored the same as everyone else put together. What can I say - pure skill.

Steve having arrived while we finished up Rapido, we split into two tables, with Martin, Gareth and Adam playing the unpleasantly graphicked Aristocracy. Andy, Matt, Steve and I pulled out the Martin Wallace push-your-luck classic Hit Z Road. Andy wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay til the end, and sure enough our journey to the West Coast fleeing zombie hordes did take us longer than it says on the box, what with rules explanations and everything. Thematically, I’m not sure having to leave to pick up someone from choir is quite as on point as being eaten alive by the undead, but Andy did the former, and then Matt and I both succumbed to the latter in fairly short order, just one round shy of sanctuary. This left Steve, the only person left playing, a very lonely winner. Well him and his band of survivors.

Steve alive

Joe/Matt dead

Andy B missing in action

At the other end of the table Aristocracy had finished, and Mapmaker had begun and ended. I think Adam won Aristocracy, and Martin Mapmaker, but I may be wrong - one of the players can add the scores in the comments if they can remember!

 

Aristocracy:
Adam 45
Gareth 43
Martin 38

Mapmaker:
Martin 4.3
Gareth 4.0
Adam 3.1

At this point Matt bowed out - perhaps demoralised that his interactions with the zombie horde hadn’t been more positive; the remaining five played Art Robbery. We played twice, because in the first few rounds of the first game, people were still acclimatising to the dickish nature of the game, and not doing enough robbing. That game ended with Martin having the least alibis, Adam winning, and everyone’s scores being strangely evenly spread.

Adam 32

Steve 24

Gareth 17

Joe 8

Martin X

We played again, with a much feistier vibe, and I won - a first for me with this game. I like it now. We should play more. Gareth took the fall this time.

Joe 28

Steve 25

Adam 14

Martin 11

Gareth X

Now Adam and Steve departed, and Gareth, Martin and I played a couple of So Clover’s. We didn’t do great - scoring first 9 out of a possible 18, then 14. Unsurprisingly, this being all but a week ago, I can’t remember any of the words or clues. I think I’d probably drunk quite a bit of white wine too.

Thus ended the evening. I did make one note along with the scores, which reads “Discussion of pants online”, as far as I can tell. Or is it “pants on line”? If anyone can remember why I wrote this, feel free to enlighten us in the comments.

Games night of the living dead

 I arrived at 8, just in time to see the final stages of La Fiesta de los Muertos, the game of guessing identities according to clues based on clues based on clues. I was handed a card and asked to pair clue to personality as best I could. The scores (and this may as well be how I introduce everyone) were

Adam (H), Sam, Laura (hosting) 5

Joe, Ian, Katy 4

Me 3

Then we played 6nimmt (the zombie version). Once this would have been the big end-of-evening crescendo but, with so many of us leaving early these days, the only chance to play a large scale version is at the start of the evening.

It was a disaster. Maybe we weren’t drunk enough or maybe we've relied on Martin too much as an arranger/adjudicator but there were a few confusing moments when cards were played to the wrong row or in the wrong order. Katy told everyone that “it’s not so bad” when they picked up a row of five or ten points but then was appalled when she ended round one with 16 points. Joe spent most of round three trying to skim his cards across the table into the correct place, which never worked but he did go clear in that round so perhaps, in a way, it did.  He also tried to Faro Shuffle the entire deck in one go, threatening to give him hand cramps.

Finally, we stumbled to the end. Laura’s first ever game of 6nimmt was a brutal introduction.

Joe 11

Katy 27

Ian 32

Andrew 38

Adam 49

Sam 49

Laura 85

So we put that away with a firm resolve to not play it unless Martin was here, and decided on our next adventure. Katy was keen to continue the zombies theme with Hit Z Road, and she persuaded Laura, Joe and Ian into a jaunt across America. Sam, Adam and I revisited Gold West. This game hasn’t been seen since 2017 and, amazingly, the last time I played it, the other half of the table was hosting Hit Z Road as well!

Sam explained while Adam and I listened, but Adam clearly listened better as he sped off into an early lead. It was close, though, and at the end of round eight (out of twelve) I was in the lead by a single point. Adam went big on metal for cards, while Sam did a lot of looting, which is what you have to do if you don’t have the resources to build a settlement. I hoped for those end-of-game bonuses on having the most discs of each colour.

Adam 103

Andrew 94

Sam 80

But Hit Z Road was still in it’s final stages. Katy had long since died, like a character in a TV series who has to die early on otherwise the zombies just won’t seem threatening. Pity. She’d even lined up her meeples in single file, with her at the back.

I left before they reached the ocean but apparently it ended

Ian

Laura

Joe… all made it

Katy… will be remembered fondly

Then they played Skylo twice

Adam 4

Ian 16

Sam 22

Katy 23

Joe 24

Laura 35

And

Joe 13

Ian 14

Adam 15

Sam 18

Katy 27

Laura 31

Thanks all. See you next week.

The Snacks Etiquette

New Player, new host: Mel and Ben were entertaining last night as GNN made its' way to Easton. Despite some absences, we still began the evening a seven, including Ian, Katy, Gareth, Martin and myself - and kicked things off with the lesser-spotted Just One. Katy was first to guess her word (pipe) and despite some duplicate clues and a rubbish clue (mine) overcame her doubts and got us off to a good start. We then proceeded to obliterate the Just One challenge, and the longer our good form improved the more pressure was on to not fail, a tension broken only by Martin tipping Ian's beer all over him. 

Katy's turn arrived again and once more she was the victim of duplication. However Martin and I felt with the clues bollock and naked, she might get stark. It wasn't to be, but a sterling effort from all concerned. 

We broke into two groups, with Martin Ian and Ben playing Whale Riders and the rest of us the Ticket to Ride-esque and delightfully named Lisbon Tram 28. We were unsurprisingly in Lisbon, driving trams. Instead of Ticket to Ride's secret objectives, however, the goals are all open and it's a race to complete them. Turns are simple: take two actions from moving, picking up passengers, dropping off passengers, or (occasionally, at certain spots in the city) upgrading your tram. 

As well as the problem of other players delivering to the tourist destinations before you do, there's also the fact the trams can (and will) shunt each other out of the way, leading to occasional cries of indignance or despair. You do get a free card when shunted (and when you shunt) but that's sometimes a hollow reward when your tramming plans are in tatters. Despite the simple rules we all had our moments. Katy professed confusion, Mel forgot to pick up cards, Gareth shuffled his cards into the deck. They finished Whale Riders:

kitchen towel expansion

Martin 27 / Ian 20 / Ben 16

...And we were still going. I thought it might be half an hour to go. Katy whispered "A bit longer" so they began playing Hit Z Road, despite protestations. Meantime our trundling trams were suddenly ramping up the pressure, and we rattled through the destinations at high velocity. 

Tram 28 has a neat little twist on scoring. As well as the points on the card when you deliver passengers, you also build a tableau out of your claimed destination cards, which have little half-tickets down the sides. If you create a 'whole' ticket in doing so, you score an extra point. I managed four of these, which (I think) was more than anyone, but it wasn't enough to beat Katy:

Katy 12 / Sam 10 / Mel 9 / Gareth 8

The other end of the table were still fighting off zombie attacks:

So we broke out Medium, the game of one of the games of word connections. Gareth and I got off to a flier when we connected these words on a second guess:

Initially Gareth said camping and I said healthy (I think) before we both landed on 'outdoors' (I think) and nabbed some points. After that, Medium fell apart, as we perpetually managed to all dance around the lines of communication without quite matching them up. Various people played their psychic links, mostly to catastrophic failure. 

But there were exceptions: Mel and Katy, despite the peer pressure and scorn of the table (particularly after Katy connected chips and bottle with the word mustard) managed to pick up points, and I think Gareth and Katy did too. I floundered. 

Katy and Mel: 13 each / Gareth 6 / Sam 5

Hit Z Road had finished by now too, with only Martin making it safely to the west coast. Ben survived a six zombie attack only to subsequently expire in sight of the ocean. Ian was first to die. 

Gareth had an early start, so now departed. With an empty table before us, we split again into groups of three. While Martin taught Trick-Taking in Black and White to Katy and Ian, Mel, Ben and I played the roll-and-write of Dizzle. 

It's a roll-and-write so there's no onerous rules confusion here: a chunk of dice are rolled and players draft them to their sheets: when all dice are placed (or everyone has passed) the squares are crossed off. You score for completing rows and columns, covering gems and linking jigsaw pieces. If you cross off a bomb it's -2pts for everyone else, and the bomb square becomes non-navigable for them. 

Catch number one is the dice must match the pip value on the sheet. Catch number two is you must place dice orthogonally adjacent to previously-placed dice, and if you can't legally do so, you can either drop out of the round or reroll the undrafted dice. But if you reroll and still don't get a die you can place, you have to return a die from your sheet to the pool - a wrinkle with teeth that bit all of us on the arse at one stage or another. We played twice, me winning the first game and Mel the second. 

Meanwhile Trick-Taking in Black and White was raising much mirth. 

The cards are numbered from 1 to 30-something, with numbers in both black and white on both cards and ascending one way (eg black) while descending the other (eg white). I think I'm right in saying the player who leads announces which colour they're leading. Beyond that I didn't catch enough of what was going on, but it seemed to go down well. Martin won yet again!

Martin 10 / Katy -5 / Ian -8

Then there was just enough to time to wrap things up with a blast through Cross Clues, and blast through we did, swaggering our way to 23 out of 25. 

nearly there

An excellent night. Ian's trousers were even dry by the time we left. The evening's opening conversation about games night snacks etiquette was also answered by the time we were done: it's eat too much and then ask someone to take the bowl away. 

When Alcatraz escaped from me

Seven gamers, one table, countless craft ales. It was Tuesday night at Joe's and he was joined by Adam H, Sam, Martin, Ian, Katy and me. We began with a big communal game of Just One, this time with a twist - a bonus point if the guesser can guess what (if any) clues got rejected through duplication. Adam successfully did it when he worked out that the rejected clues for "bar" were "cheers".

I feel we should apologise for the clues in Sam's first round, which expected him to deduce "market" from a disparate bunch, including words like "Marrakesh", "bear", "dominion" and "albion." I should also apologise for blurting out the word as I tried to cajole Adam into writing something. "Come on, it's Alcatraz!" I exclaimed in frustration. Oops.

Finally, hats off to Katy for perhaps the least helpful clue possible. She tried to guide Adam towards the word "guard" with the clue "the". Apparently The Guard is the name of a film.

We scored 11, including the bonus point.

Then we split into two groups. Katy had brought her new purchase (from Sam) Hit Z Road and Joe, Ian and Martin were happy to join her. Adam, Sam and I chose Orbit. We set up using a genuine (I suppose. No way I could've checked it) map of the solar system at that moment, and we were off. It had been a while since we last played so I was glad of the player aid. Sam forgot to hand one to Ian, perhaps under the assumption that if he did, then Adam would win.

Most frustrating were the frequent occasions when Earth was in entirely the wrong part of the board for launching to any planet. Frustrating because I couldn't blame anyone's random set-up for this. Except maybe God.

Sam sped into an early lead while Adam languished in a distant last. We still thought he'd win, though. After all, he was India which was the space agency he had said he preferred. But Sam would not be caught. He picked up mission cards several times and when the final tally was counted, he laid out one successful mission after another for a fine victory.

Sam 50
Andrew 31 (wins tie breaker)
Adam 31

In Hit Z Road, it was its usual entertaining self and I actually made more notes for that game than for the one I was playing. The craziness began with Katy saying the game was a co-op, which wasn't a universally accepted opinion. Then the bidding went crazy cakes in the first round, with Martin putting in a full bid of ten for the right to go first.

At the end of round two Joe had to face off against some zombies. His two survivors against their six undead. Amazingly, he did it. Alas, neither he nor Martin make it to the end of the third round. Ian and Katy do, although they had no resources at all. They did have lots of survivors though and both made it through to the end, Ian had five survivors and Katy, who at one point had seven in her gang, ended with three.

Ian 19
Katy 7
Joe and Martin dead

Then they filled the time with a game of L. A. M. A. And it ended with a clean sweep for Ian.

Ian 0
Katy 27
Martin 33
Joe 50

At this point Ian left for home and the remaining six of us joined together for two more games. First was For Sale. After the bidding round, Sam declared he had a “right dog shit pile of cards,” although it can’t have been that bad. I got stung with a zero cheque having played a 17 card in that round.

Adam 60
Sam 46
Andrew 44
Katy 39
Joe 39
Martin 35

Finally we ended with 6nimmt, about which Katy said “usually I do well at this game.” But not this time and after round three she was in last. Luckily (for her, that is) I fell into a massive death spiral which lead to me picking up 42 points in round four and dropping from second place to last, crashing through the 66 point barrier and ending the game. Martin won by miles.

Martin 22
Adam 50
Joe 51
Sam 53
Jaty 64
Andrew 71

And that was it. Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you all soon!

Punch, Kick, It's All In The Mind

This week's games night saw a steadily shifting number of players around Sam's kitchen table, all vying to be the best.

We (Martin, Katy, Joe, Stanley, Sam & Joe, Ian, Adam and I) began with a recent Knizia. What new ideas would he bring to the table this time? Well... ones that vaguely resemble his old ideas, truth be told. The game was Karate Tomate and is a trick taking game whose defining features are (a) a general lack of cards unless you drop out of a round early so you can pick some up and (b) player with least kitchen knives automatically loses.

It was pretty smart. Trying to judge when to not bet was interesting because if too many drop out at the same time, then those remaining can pick up trophies and knives for next to nothing.

The theme, though, barely made any sense. Something to do with tomatoes and needing knives to see off your opponents' vegetables? It kind of reminded me of Parappa the Rapper, the old PS1 game with an onion that sang martial arts advice to you (which explains the blog title), but otherwise it was pretty tenuous. I’m a little surprised they didn’t go for a Karate/Carrot-e pun, but maybe that had already been done.

Joe 13
Adam 12
Sam and Joe 9
Martin 8
Andrew 7
Ian 5
Katy and Stanley had joint fewest knives.

Then Joe junior went to bed and the rest of us split into two groups. Martin, Adam and Katy played Res Arcana, an engine building game with a kind of fantasy theme. (Why on earth was Martin playing it?) The rest of us (Stanley, Ian, Sam, Joe and me) played Down Force, the exciting game of betting and racing.

Stanley picked up two cars in the opening round. Would this be his undoing? The rest of us had one car each. Also, Stanley kept getting distracted by Res Arcana being played next to him. He even gave Katy some helpful advice.

On Down Force, Joe played a clever but frustrating game whereby he was twice able to put his car at the start of a chicane so the rest of us had to begrudgingly move it in order to get past. It was hardly in the spirit of F1, but was probably how the game is meant to be played: hitting those sweet spots to make everyone else move you along.

But Stanley's orange car sped off into the lead in the second half of the race, knocking Joe's blue car into second. My yellow came in third. Sam was slightly embarrassed by his betting choices pushing his score into negative numbers while Joe showed an admirable sense of confidence by betting only on himself. Meanwhile, Res Arcana hadn't been as much of a distraction for Stanley as we might have wanted.

Stanley 23
Joe 17
Andrew 7
Ian 5
Sam -1

Res Arcana was still ongoing so Joe introduced us to Nyet. This trick taking card game is a strange beast, with a slightly different set of rules each round and teams that are decided at the start of each round. Intriguing and a bit baffling as we got hung up on the definition of Super Trumps.

We only had time to play one round and it was much more straightforward once you started playing it. The teams were Ian and me against Sam and Joe and thanks to a flurry of loot cards in our tricks, Ian and I won.

Ian and me 48
Sam and Joe 36

Res Arcana finished after all that mucking about with Calm and Elan

Martin 10
Adam 7
Katy 3

Martin credited his victory with filling up the Catacombs of the Dead. Whatever that means.

At this point, Adam left too. A very early departure for someone who was generous enough to bring two different snacks and so early that he missed the BBQ Beef Hula Hoops. Now we were down to six so seats were swapped and groups reformed. Katy, Ian and Joe played Hit Z Road and Martin, Sam and I went back in time to the Roman Empire in a game of Senators.

We played with the support cards this time, little game breaking things that offer you an advantage but can be embezzled away by your opponents.

We played twice. In game one, Martin raced into an early lead and looked good for a strong game when a fourth war occurred and we were suddenly done. Not to be dissuaded, we cheekily shuffled that fourth war card back into the pack and kept playing. But Lady Luck will not be fooled and after barely a couple of turns, the fourth war card popped up again. This time we took the hint.

Martin 8
Sam 5
Andrew 4

We set up again for another try. This time we seeded one of the five war cards in the second half of the deck. Hopefully this would give us a decent amount of time.

Meanwhile, in post zombie apocalypse America, Ian was already down to his last two survivors.

In Senators Mark II, Sam had a support card that gave an extorter an additional five coins before extorting for the other players. So, obviously, Sam was a little Roman mafioso, taking full advantage of his power. Meanwhile Martin also extorted every round, trying to get the card off Sam. I didn't, since I needed resources (I even sung “dwindling resources” to the tune of “Waltzing Matilda”) so I could cash in but never got much luck.

And, yet again, the fourth war seemed to come round sooner than we were expecting. Martin was happy because he'd just cashed in and used a consul card to steal a senator from Sam, pushing him into first, when the game ended.

Martin 8
Sam 6
Andrew 5

With Katy, Joe and Ian still staggering through the landscape of the undead, we fired off a quick two round game of Maskmen. Finally a game I won, but I made no notes at all. I do remember Sam saying he knew he'd lost round one when he had a hand of mostly two colours and those were both played by Martin and I first, effectively making them the weakest suits.

Andrew 2
Martin 1
Sam 1

In Hit Z Road, Ian's valiant last stand against zombies ended as you might expect in a zombie film with another twenty minutes to run. Joe, on the other hand, had all of his survivors intact. Katy's last two survivors died and then she too ended up as nothing but a name in the final credits. This meant Joe, with his gang of zombie-proof friends, won instantly.

Joe, alive and kicking
Katy and Ian, kicked the bucket

It was late but enough time for a big friendly game for all of us. Perudo or Just One? Those were the choices. The voting went to two rounds before Just One was eliminated and old favourite Perudo was chosen.

Ian followed up his Hit Z Road storyline of dying young with a repeat performance in Perudo. After him, I was next to Palafiko (spelling? Still not sure) but didn’t go out. Instead I clung on while first Martin then Joe went out. Then finally I was vanquished so that the real battle could commence: Sam versus Katy, three dice each.

Katy lost two quickly but when it came to palafiko her bid of “one six” won: Sam had rolled himself three fives! Then Sam went down to one die but there’s not palafiko on 1 vs 1, so when Katy bid One Six, he knew he was doomed with his one five.

Katy wins!
Sam next,
Andrew next,
Joe next,
Martin next,
Ian last.

By now it was eleven and as we were packing up, Texas Jim came in from the next room. This old stalwart of pre-GNN poker nights was visiting and had come in to see what all the laughter and jollity was. Alas, the laughter was ending and I felt a pang of regret that we didn’t have enough in us for one last game.

But we really didn’t. Thanks to Sam for hosting and thanks to all for attending.

Battered and Bruges

This week's gaming bonanza coincided (approximately) with Katy's birthday. Since the actual day wasn't for another two days, the festivities were kept to a bare minimum: cake a card and the vague offer of a game of Yokohama.

There were between eight and ten of us this evening, namely: Adam and Hannah (the hosts), Judith (Hannah's mum), Sam, Joe, Katy, Ian, Martin, Stuart (a friend of Martin's) and me.

We began with eight of us around the big table (all of us minus Hannah and Judith) for a rousing game of Fuji Flush. Stuart started well, getting down to two cards in next to no time. But  soon after, Joe got down to one card and then before anyone had worked out how best to stop him, he pushed through for the win. Sam grimly accepted that, in this life, his super power appears to be the ability to pick up only the very lowest cards from a randomly shuffled deck.

Joe no cards left
Martin, Stuart, Katy, Andrew 2
Ian, Adam 3
Sam 4

This was followed by delicious cake, courtesy of Hannah, before we split into three groups.

Cake! Split into somewhat more than three.

Judith was tempted into a game of Team Play with Adam, Hannah and Katy. Soon after the game began, Judith remarked "I'm already getting frustrated," and a laugh of recognition spread across the room. It could almost be the motto of board gamers everywhere. That game ended...

Hannah and Katy 30
Adam and Judith 21

On the big table, six players played two games. Martin, Stuart and Ian played Azul. I didn't follow it, despite sharing the same space, but Ian was in full pessimist mode mid-game and couldn't dig himself out by the end.

R to L: Team Play, Azul, Heaven and Ale

Martin 95
Stuart 67
Ian 49

Joe, Sam and I chose Heaven and Ale. I was keen to defend my title, but instead found myself making rookie errors while Sam, free from Explainer's Curse, played an exemplary game, ending with six large barrels.

Sam 40
Joe 17
Andrew 11

Team Play and Azul ended at more or less the same time so, without Judith, they rearranged into two new groups.

Stuart was tempted by the artwork on Eggs Of Ostrich, so he, Ian and Katy played a game.

Katy 14
Stuart 7
Ian 5

Meanwhile, Hannah, Adam and Martin battled through The Mind all the way up to level nine. But Hannah was counting under her breath. Apparently, this meant something but I, in my ignorance of the game, didn't understand the importance of this. (Actually, now I've played it, I'm still don't see how it's a viable option for victory but oh well.)

Then Heaven and Ale finished and more groups were shuffled. Adam, Ian and Sam went for the (in my opinion at the time) insane option of Calimala with its daunting 75+ minutes game time on the side of the box. And that was without factoring in the rules explanations. Hats off to them, though, they cracked through it at lightening pace, zipping around European cities (hence this week's tenuous blog title). The ending must've been tense since, when the scores were counted up, Sam had just squeezed a win. This caused a joyous declaration of "In your face, Hillmann!" from the victor who had just survived some major spoiling tactics from Adam.

Sam 33
Adam 32
Ian 28

While all this was happening, Katy, Stuart and Martin played Hit Z Road. I know very little about this game except that Martin tried his best to avoid zombies.

Katy 12
Martin 7
Stuart died "but did well," according to Katy.

On the blue coffee table, Hannah, Joe and I played Zero Down which is a simple game of having a hand of nine cards and drawing cards from a common source of five cards, and also discarding into the same source so it always remains at five cards. The aim is to score least. Each denomination (1-8) scores its value in your hand, ie a pair of eights scores eight. As does one eight or three or four. But five eights get you no points at all. Equally, five in the same colour (of which there are seven) also gives you no points.

It's a tricky game. Unless you're Hannah, who scored 4 points, 0 points then 1 point in each round to win the game comfortably.

Hannah 5
Joe 26
Andrew 48

Then Hannah retired to bed, so Joe and I played The Mind. This simple game of putting your cards down in numerical order but without speaking is a surprisingly exhausting ordeal.

We made it all the way up to level twelve and, with a little more courage, might have cleared that final level too. But we were proud of our efforts, especially round ten which ended with the cards 93, 96, 97, 99 and 100. Joe did try to argue that losing your last life meant you had one more left, like in video games, but Martin wasn't having any of it.

Now we were all together we finished with 6nimmt. Any reservations about the late hour to start the game were eased by the sight of Joe crashing into a death spiral in the first round, ending with 46 points. At the other end of the luck spectrum, Martin had 1 point and Katy had 2.

In the second and final round (Joe was worst player twice in a row) Adam and Ian, sitting side by side, both scored a clear round. Not enough to win the game, as it happened, but enough to give Katy a moment of doubt. But only a moment.

Katy 10
Adam 12
Martin 14
Ian 15
Stuart 39
Andrew 42
Sam 46
Joe 74

And, with that, we were done. Thanks to the hosts for hosting and for cake. And thanks to Joe for a lift back in his spacious new car.

I'm totally incensed

This Tuesday's GNN-ness started a few minutes earlier than expected when I met former regular Steve as I walked to Sam's. He couldn't make it tonight, but he told me of a recent visit to a games shop in Germany. Has his flame been rekindled? We can only hope.

I arrived at Sam's to find the host and Joe already halfway through a game of Kribbeln and a margarita each. The roll & write game didn't last long with just two players, but despite its short duration it was surprisingly tense.

Joe 12
Sam 12

By the time they were done, Ian and Martin had joined us. We weren't expecting Katy and Adam for another fifteen minutes so we squeezed in a quick game of No Thanks! The game which, as Ian noted, you can't turn down because it sounds like you're agreeing.

Ian went for the low cards, with the rest of us going for higher cards. In my case, much higher. Martin seemed resigned to the fact that his favoured cards would be picked by other players, with a weary question (rhetorical, I hope) of "Who wants to kick me in the balls?" whenever he turned over certain cards. Turns out, the player furthest from wanting to kick his balls was the clear winner.

Ian 6
Sam 23
Andrew 26
Martin 29
Joe 29

Now we were seven, so we split into to. Three (Katy, Ian and Martin) took on the undead in Hit Z Road. The remainder (Sam, Adam, Joe and me) chose Tribes.

Tribes has been a recent hit of the summer with Sam playing several games and had enjoyed it. This time, though, for whatever reason, the wheels fell of the game's engine.

Sam's early bad luck with exploring didn't help his cause. He found a lot of incense, which is fine for ceremonial burials, but not much else. At least it gave me the blog title.

But it was probably the twin threat of two event tiles that exhausted tiles (ie, took away resources) that really caused problems. No matter how much we avoided them, eventually they got played, with Adam suddenly finding all his abundant fields were barren. On the other hand, he had almost all the shells (the game's currency, used to avoid choosing a tile) while the rest of us had only a few, if any.

This meant there were a few goes were we couldn't afford to choose our action and Adam could only explore, trying to find new resources to use. The game entered a sort of holding pattern, while we slowly tried to get our plans in place.

I was first to leap into action and, since I was already in the lead, my victory was pretty comprehensive.

Andrew 28
Sam 18
Joe 11
Adam 11

Tribes didn't get a lot of love, and Sam admitted that if that had been his first game, he wouldn't have been impressed either. He seemed baffled by how it had played out, as if he didn’t recognise the game at all. Perhaps the most entertaining parts were the text messages from Joe’s daughter on a camping trip wanting to know how to make a kettle boil faster. “Don’t look at it,” suggested Adam.

Hit Z Road, on the other hand, was all excitement accompanied by a steady flow of expletives, mostly from Martin. They had a hard time of it, and had only two survivors left by the time the tougher cards came out.

They didn't last much longer. No one reached the West coast, but Martin was last man standing.

Martin, one survivor still alive
Ian, died later
Katy, died earlier

Since we ended at the same time, groups were rearranged. And I think it was around now when Joe insisted he could probably kick himself in the balls. He even stood up, lifting his left foot up, yoga-like in the required direction. Just as a proof of concept: I don't think actual contact was made. I guess those margaritas were pretty potent.

Now Adam, Katy and Ian played Biblios while Martin & me and Joe & Sam teamed up for Montage.

Montage was tough and I kept getting the colours confused, and I had the embarrassment of giving a clue and then having to retract it. Sam & Joe were perhaps feeling the effect of the early margaritas, since the game was over quite quickly.

Martin & Andrew 4
Sam & Joe 1

Biblios (of the Extreme type) ended with some low scoring dice to fight over.

Adam 7
Katy 5
Ian 1

Then they played NMBR9 while we were finishing off Montage. It appears that Katy is not a fan of this game. Adam, on the other hand...

Adam 111
Ian 65
Katy 46

Then we rearranged again. Now Adam, Sam, Martin and Joe played Polterfass (with fresh margaritas). Ian and I chose Pickomino/Heck Meck as our game, thinking that Katy might be amused at other people's misfortune. Unfortunately the misfortune was all hers. She obsessed over the 27 tile, winning it, losing it, getting it back, and then losing it again. If we’d hoped to get Katy in a better mood, then we had failed. Ian, though, failed more constructively than I did.

Ian 8 (and the 30 tile)
Andrew 8 (and the 29 tiles)
Katy 0

Still needing a pick-me-up for a Katy suffering from a gaming lull, we brought out the big guns: Colour Wheel from Pyramid Arcade. With its bright colours and co-operative ethos, it’s like a board game equivalent of a My Little Pony film. Slowly the mix of shiny plastic and puzzling logic brought out Katy’s better side. And we even solved the puzzle!

By now Polterfass had ended too, with Sam scoring a last-ditch high of 13 points in a round to avoid ending in negative points, which is where he spent most of the game. Adam, though, won again.

Adam 75
Joe 41
Martin 35
Sam 11

They also played another game of Kribbeln which I only know about thanks to the photos on my phone.

I forgot to note the scores, but I did take a photo of the score card near the end. It looks like Joe nicked it in the final round.

Finally, it was time to the finale: Fuji Flush. Ian managed to put a new spin on his reputation of Le Coq Bloquer by repeatedly playing a card that wiped out the chain before I was going to join it. Amazing. Frustrating for me, but it seemed to be a winning strategy.

Ian 0 cards left
Martin 1
Adam 1
Katy 1
Sam 2
Andrew 2
Joe 2

And with that, we were done. Emotionally exhausted and really quite drunk. That’s Tuesday for you!