That's literally Numberwang

Joe's house. Five gamers. Joe, Sam, Martin, Ian and me. Five is getting a reputation for being a difficult number to please, but there were no worries on that score tonight.

The first game was The Shipwreck Arcana, a co-op deduction game. Four slightly Tarot-y cards are played, each with a rule written on them. Each player has two tiles with a number between one and seven on them. The idea is to play one tile to a card and then the other players have to work out what your other number is. For example a rule might read "If your fates (ie, tiles) are a factor of two or three of each other, then play one here." Then if someone puts a three there, then their other number is either a one or a six.

It was quick to learn but tricky enough to slow us right down at times. Also, when discussing the meaning of a particular placement, Martin sometimes drew logical conclusions that I'm not sure even the person placing the tiles had thought of. Either way, we made no mistakes and brought the game to a swiftish end after getting seven right in a row.

Next up was Mü. This card game made its last appearance six and a half years ago and at the time we found its layers of rules pretty opaque. After such a long time since the last game, we found ourselves in exactly the same situation again.

The game is a trick taking game, but with two teams, which are decided by a bidding process during which you definitely don't want to be "on the hook". Once the Captain and Vice Captain (actually on different teams) are declared, they chose two trump suits, which might be numbers not suits. Then, when a round is completed, you consult the score chart (a sort of periodic table of even more numbers) to discover who succeeded and how much they won.

The winner is first to 500. We ended after two rounds. Criminally, I didn't take a note of the scores, but Martin won.

An intriguing experience, and one we need to try again soon if we're to get a grip on this game.

Next up was The House Of Borgias. This cross between Perudo and papal legacy was well received, as I recall, last time it was played, but hasn't been seen since. After a quick rule refresher, we fell back into our old skullduggering ways, bidding on poison, bribery, rumours, accusations, etc. The game is best remembered for the "Seven bribes" bid usually being followed by "for seven brubbers." Quality comedy, right there.

Ian was the only player to be correctly identified, so he scored no points at all. Meanwhile, Sam played a cautious game and his remaining four dice got his preferred cardinal an extra eight point bonus.

Sam 15
Martin 13
Joe 12
Andrew 10
Ian 0

At this point Sam left us at a sensible hour for sensible reasons. But the rest of us felt no rain on our parade, so we ploughed on.

By this time, there was no chance of a big game, so we stuck to lighter fare. Kribbeln was up next, using Joe's split-level dice arena which allowed us to properly specify which dice were frozen and which were still in play. Essential stuff.

At the end of the second round, Joe and I were level on 17 points. As we entered round three, I failed a roll but scored 34 points. I decided to put it in my Kribbeln, thinking that a guaranteed four points followed by a practically guaranteed no points was better than trying to be clever and scoring twice at the end.

A clever plan, but not enough to beat Joe who scored enough in round four that my dash for glory was for nought.

Joe 25
Andrew 23
Martin 18
Ian 16

After this we plumped for The Mind, the game that Sam had told us, barely able to believe it himself, that his wife had started playing as he was setting out this evening.

We played twice. Our first attempt seemed charmed at the start, as we cleared round one with the cards 2, 8, 9, 50. We lasted until round five where we fell to a combination of 66, 68, 69, 70. My (really quite drunken) notes state "fractionally out... like bad sex." It probably meant something at the time.

Then we tried again. We lost lives in the first two rounds and then in round three nobody moved. Eventually, Joe put down the lowest card - a 28.

We somehow got through round four without losing a life, which ended 93 (Ian), 96 (Martin), 99 (Ian), 100 (Martin). But eventually we fell on round eight, one round before the dark mind.

What a way to end a night. Big thanks to all concerned. And hope to see more of us next week.

Feeling Gravity's Pull

What happened to tonight? Were the planets out of alignment? So many minor things went wrong. For example, Tuesday night was at Joe's this week but, in total auto pilot, I was halfway to Sam's before I remembered. Then there were the many occasions of people dropping bits of games (hence the blog title), and now I come to write this up, I cannot find the piece of paper I wrote the results on! It’s all down to my memory today. Sorry about the lack of numbers.

Luckily, despite my detour, I wasn't late and I arrived after Sam and Katy but before Martin and Ian. We began as a six, with a game of Stroop - a quick fire Dobble/Snap style game where the cards have words on them, possessing certain qualities like colour, size, solidity. The aim of the game is to get rid of all your cards by quickly putting them face up on a pile in the middle, but only if they obey certain rules such as the meaning of the word on the card must describe a characteristic of the previous card. Or not.

Six. Blue. Small. Hollow. Oh, and three letters.

So we played. Well, at first we watched Martin play as he put down one card after another. By round two some of us had roused ourselves enough to clear our draw piles too. I was quite pleased with my third place until I realised that Sam and Joe had stopped playing, and Ian hadn't started at all.

Martin
Katy
Andrew
Sam, Joe and Ian retired, unimpressed.

Next, Katy angled for a game of Yokohama, reasoning that if we left it much longer, we'd have to learn the rules from scratch again. And nobody wants that. Joe and I joined her, leaving the other half of the table to play something "more fun".

They played Sagrada, a game that Sam compared favourably to Roll Player in it's dice-based puzzling qualities. The dice, of which there are ninety, were new and shiny and - judging by the number of times they were dropped on the floor - apparently frictionless.

Meanwhile, we set up Yokohama as swiftly and efficiently as possible, with Joe scattering the game money across the table in his haste. We were underway before too long. But any fresh memory of the game had not helped Katy. In fact, maybe it hindered her, as the sharp pain of a recent defeat lead her into analysis paralysis in the opening few rounds. One of her turns was long enough that I was able to  get up and help in a search for scattered dice on Joe's kitchen floor.

As the game progressed, the moves quickened, and we were heading up the score track, quicksticks. We all took turns in last place, but found myself drifting further behind as the game went on.

The other three played Capital Lux, which I've seen played before, but it's a game that doesn't make much sense from a distance. Ian seemed to know what was going on, though.

Ian won, somewhere in the eighties I think.
Sam and Martin trailed in the sixties. Could be more. Could be less.

At this point, we told them we had another hour before we finished, so they played Flamme Rogue. I was absorbed in Yokohama by now, so I missed a lot of the race. In fact, I had to text Sam just now to find out who won.

Flamme Rogue in the background

Sam won
Martin a close second
Not sure if Ian crossed the line.

Suddenly, Joe ended the game by putting the fifth assistant in the Customs House. Both Katy and I had not expected that, and we suddenly had one turn to maximise whatever resources we had left.

Katy did not have a great final turn, but her lead at that time was enough to keep hold of first place.

Katy 120ish
Joe 110? Maybe?
I was stuck in the nineties. Story of my life.

Since Yokohama and Flamme Rogue had ended more or less simultaneously, we ended the evening as a six. Martin suggested another new game House of the Borgias, which we said in a broad New York accent because that meant “Borgia” sounded a bit like the surname of our genial host Joe. How funny we are.

The theme is that the Pope is dead, and we each have a cardinal that we’d like to succeed him. We have to sneakily get influence counters on our cardinal without anyone guessing who we’re supporting.

The game itself is Perudo, but instead of simply surviving if your guess is not challenged, you get to carry out an action. The action depends on the suit of dice that you chose. It was quite tense and I found it a lot of fun. Trying to judge a guess that sounded plausible that you’d get to do an action, but quickly became implausible as the bet ramped up, so almost no one else got an action, was pretty difficult.

I had a lot of fun, but I have no idea who won. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me.

If any of you can help, pop it in the comments.

Update long after anyone has stopped caring...

I have found the piece of paper I wrote the scores on. And they were:

Sagrada
Martin 57
Sam 37
Ian 32

Capital Lux
Ian 82
Martin 70
Sam 65

Flamme Rogue
Sam 1st
Martin 2nd
Ian 3rd


Yokohama
Katy 128
Joe 116
Andrew 106

(so I did go past 100. I’d completely forgotten.)

House of Borgia

(or “Seven Bribes for Seven Brothers” as we quickly dubbed it)

Ian 19
Martin 16
Sam 15
Andrew 11
I think Katy and Joe were both found out.