Let them eat Cake

It was a winter of content as, not so long after Novocon, and just a few days after Laura's games day, a second festive get-together arrived. This time we were at Anja and Steve's: Joe drove myself and Katy over and we arrived just as they were finishing the first game of the session, with Steve coming a cropper in That's Not a Hat. Martin, Sarah and Effie were present and somewhere in the house Louie and Arthur were navigating pixel world. There was some chat and drinks prep and invasively-shaped breadsticks, and then Sarah and Effie made their way home and then remaining adults played Joe's recent acquisition, Awkward Family Photos. 

It's a party game where one player draws a card and chooses which demented photo they want the other players to provide a quote for. The quotes themselves are on cards, and drawn from movies, meaning there is fun to be had in the juxtaposition of lines we often know and strange people we don't, as well as the weirdness of the images themselves. I should have written some of these down but I didn't - anyway, the active player chooses which quote they thinks works best/is funniest/stupidest and the player who provided the quote gets the picture as a point. Katy cleaned up here, snagging three pics. The rest of us had one or none, but the highlight was no doubt Steve's enthusiastic embracing of reading the lines. 

We split into two groups, with Joe Katy and Hannah joining Martin in the perilous lands of Hold Your Ground and myself, Adam, Anja and Steve playing MLEM. 

Anja was concerned that her conservative approach was boring initially, but she warmed to the theme as serial explosions sent the rest of us into the ether whilst she watched from the warmth of a planet made of yarn. I missed all the fun of Hold Your Ground as I was too busy heckling her - to no avail. Steve and I tried to finish with a flourish making it into Deep Space, but only blew up again. 

Anja 27

Adam 25

Sam 21

Steve 15

Hold Your Ground had finished just before us, with Joe the victor on his debut play. There was some child-wrangling at this point, followed by some soup wrangling, and while we waited for the latter Joe introduced us to his game of counting from 1 to 20. It's always anyone's turn to say the next number, but if two or more people speak at the same time, you have to restart from one. We were all entertained by this - except Katy, who pronounced she couldn't stand it and left the room - but the furthest we got was 17 - unless you accept Joe and Martin's two-player version where they simply took turns. Steve, Martin and I also played a few rounds of Illusion at this point as well - but then the soup was ready! There was also home-made bread and cheese and a discussion about cheese between Louie, Arthur, Joe and I in the kitchen. But I forgot to take photos. When are you back, Andrew? 

After this lovely dinner Steve took some of us on a tour of the bouncy front room and we discussed such construction undertakings as joists and chasing. Then there was an amazing cake, the name of which I now forget but it's a bit like panottoni, and you - or Steve - can slice it into the shape of a Christmas tree. 

We broke into two groups again, with Joe, Adam and Katy playing Thurn and Taxis and the rest of us Mille Fiori. Louie was initially slated to build the German postal system as well, but the arrival of snow outside meant he was lost to the salad days of youth and cold hands. 

Meantime shit was getting slightly less real on the table. Anja's third or fourth turn was an early epic, as she triggered a bunch of bonus turns and catapulted herself into what looked like, to the uninitiated, an insurmountable lead. But we are all sadly initiated at this point, and Martin caught her up later on in the game as Steve and I took turns to make mournful little sounds with our mouths. With apologies, I missed the drama of Thurn and Taxis as a result, but my modest late-game surge in Mille Fiori was almost as pitiful as what came before it. 

Martin 238

Anja 210 

Sam 177

Steve 171

While they entered the final furlong in Thurn and Taxis, there was a lot of bodily movement around the house and I think at this point Steve showed me the upstairs, which I'd never seen before. It's huge! Then Martin and I played Hit! with Arthur and Louie. All of us regularly busted, but then endgame favoured Arthur and I somewhat.

Sam 84

Arthur 72

Martin 68

Louie 4

Thurn and Taxis wrapped up now, with Adam taking a convincing win:

Adam 24

Katy 16

Joe 10

And after some table shenanigans, I set up my Christmas gift Let's Go! To Japan with Adam and Joe, whilst the other end of the table played Agent Avenue. I had now completely abandoned my journalistic responsibilities, but fortunately Steve was on the case...

And here's some Let's Go! To Japanning from earlier times.

In this game we are planning our wonderful trip(s) to Japan by arranging three activities per day over six days - presuming, in my case, my travelling self has more energy than I do. When our final activity/card is placed, we then go on our trips, and each experience increases the holistic and cultural value of it by pushing the component aspects of the vacation (food, temples, unique experiences etc) up the track. If, at the end of the day, we have received enough of said aspect, then we can also score the Highlight of the Day as well. 

That's pretty much the game, save for a couple of wrinkles of your mood increasing (or not) overall, and the fact that your entire trip is based in Tokyo and Kyoto: any time you travel 'between' these cities, you must take the train. This was where Joe's planning fell down - he spent a lot of time whizzing between cities and without the tickets for it, he got hit with minus points. But for the activities themselves, Joe was having a grand old time, keeping costs low and enjoying a kind of thrift-store version of Japan. It was enough to win, though I inevitably made no note of the scores I think it was

Joe 115

Sam 111

Adam 109

But we all had a great trip. Katy's first play of Agent Avenue was less successful, as she and Anja came a cropper at the hands of Martin and Steve. But now it was getting on a bit - Louie had gone to bed, Hannah and Arthur had returned from the snow only to vanish again, and whenever the door opened I complained like an old man about the arctic wind that blew in. In other words, it was time for So Clover. I won't lie, I was smugly thinking about the fact I had a long record of sixes up until tonight when my clover - the first - blew up in my face: we scored three because apparently nobody sees Memory/Sky as poetically as I do (I wrote Dreamland: there were better matches). 

I was also responsible for harpooning Anja's clover when I said "This now looks insane" about the card placements and we started again only to subsequently discover they'd been in the right place. Katy's cake was a great clue for Fairy/Hole and Martin's deoxygenated for Summit/Heart was clever. Overall 35 from a possible 42 (using two sets of the game) wasn't too shabby. 

A fun way to end the evening, as always. Thanks to everyone, especially our hosts, and see you before too long I hope!

And so it gheos

This week's games event was at Sam's place, and it began with six avid gamers huddled around the kitchen table. Sam was joined by Stanley, Joe (the grown up version, not Stanley's brother), Ian, Martin and me.

On one half of the table sat Sam, Stanley and Joe, getting ready for a game of Root, the new craze that swept the world of Sam and Stanley. At this end of the table, Martin had a new game to try, Gheos.

It had an interesting way of choosing the starting player; the one who can refrain from laughing the longest.

This game involves building a the playing area using triangular pieces with water and land, to create continents to put civilisations on. We don't control these civilisations in any way but, as gods, we can share in their success by picking up cubes of the same colour. We can also force the them to fight or migrate, by replacing parts of the world with new land masses, thus connecting or separating previously established continents.

This aspect of joining civilisations to make them fight reminded me of Tigris and Euphrates, and the game got a similarly cold reception from me. Ian said he enjoyed it and that he was expecting it to be more combative. I had to remind him that both he and Martin had killed off civilisations that I had a large stake in, in consecutive moves. Martin liked it, despite having to pay a cube if you want to be a dick to someone and change their continent.

Ian 70
Martin 69
Andrew 53

Meanwhile, in Root, after some debate whether Joe should choose an easier faction to play, the game was well under way. Stanley caused early upheaval by being hostile towards his dad, and wanting to hit Joe with a hammer. Added to this were strange discussions about battles in rabbit land or something. It looked nice but was all very opaque to an uniformed spectator.
Stanley won with what was, apparently, his favourite faction, while Joe managed to get into second and afterwards had nothing but praise for it.

Stanley 31
Joe 19
Sam 15

While we waiting for them to finish, we whipped off a quick round of Divinare. This game of psychic divination is rarely seen (because I never bring it) but is usually well received when it is.

We began with Martin saying he could hardly remember how to play. Suffice to say, it all came back to him.

Martin 10
Andrew - 1
Ian - 2

Afterwards, Martin explained his winning strategy, which is to remember what cards you hand your neighbour, because you'll see everything else. Not psychic powers, then. How disappointing.

Now, after so much ponderous gaming, we were in the mood for something riotous. We chose Decrypto, with our teams being Knackers All (Martin and Joe) against The Angry Stoics (Ian, Sam and I).

By round four, we had one error each, but then Knackers All got an interception. As we entered round five, I was in a fix, since we were sure that they had worked out three of our secret code words. Luckily, the combination I had to communicate to my fellow spies had the one word they knew least about. I entered a significant reverie that was long enough to be called a Joe Turn, and for reference to be made to Paul's epic contemplation on round nine of Lords Of Waterdeep.

In the end, it was all for nought, as they guessed it anyway. However, they failed to communicate their final clue, giving us hope that we might win on fewest mistakes. We didn't. Ian showed some talent by working out two of Joe and Martin's words, but those were just consolation goals in the football game of espionage.

Knackers All, loud and clear
The Angry Stoics, too much noise on the line.

Next was every quantity surveyor's favourite party game, Illusion. Last time we played, we were amazing in our accuracy. Today, not so much. Martin was distracted by a video of Huddersfield's wonder goal from the half-way line (into their own net, unfortunately) while I had a game where I neither challenged nor was challenged. Eagle eyed Ian took first place.

Ian 3
Martin 2
Joe 1
Sam 1
Andrew 0

Next was Face Cards, another new favourite. Just like Gheos, this game also had an ingenious way of choosing starting player: draw a card and the person who most resembles it begins. Apparently, I most resemble the Mona Lisa.

This game saw an audacious strategy by Joe. In his first round, he attempted to get us to match Mozart with Bach and he was amazed when no one chose it.

Then, in the next round he hoped that by playing Beethoven into the middle, that we would remember his fondness for dead composers and assume that was his card, despite the completely dissimilar card (a sheik) he had in front of him.

This plan was foiled when he accidentally put the Sheik in the middle and kept Beethoven in front of him. There was no way any of us could put those two together in those circumstances, especially since the author Goethe was among the six choices (which was my guess). But, to be honest, even if he'd got it right, I still don't think that it would have worked. Still, as I said, an audacious idea.

Joe also wondered if the game might be improved by betting real money on whether or not your pair is guessed. Maybe there's a variant on the Geek.

Martin 11
Ian 10
Joe 10
Sam 10
Andrew 9

Then we played a new very simple roll 'n' write, Kriss Kross. Roll two dice and write them (next to each other) in a five by five grid. Points are given for two, three, four or five in a row horizontally and vertically.

I omitted to pay much attention to the verticals, but luckily my horizontals scored so high, they didn't matter.

Andrew 29
Martin 28
Ian 26
Joe 25
Sam 25

Finally, with a win under my belt, I set off for home. Ian, despite flagging, was tempted to stay for a game of continuous Pairs. Joe lost the first game (since there are only losers in this variant, no winners) and Sam lost the second game on the last card in the deck.

Nice to be back at Sam's, and thanks to all for another fun time.

Junk Junkies

After two weeks of trios, GNN swelled in size to a whole quintet of gamers. Initially, there was Joe, the host, Sam, returning from holidays, Ian, returning from illness and me, again. Later Andy M was expected to join us.

We began with one the games that Joe bought in Germany; Kimono. This is a Mammut-esque card game of dividing a group of objects (in this case, pieces of Japanese finery) in two and then players secretly choose which one they are interested in. If you're the only one who's interested in a group, then it's yours. Otherwise it stays on the table and is divided again. And so the process repeats.

On top of this, any group that can't be shared goes into the bin, as does any group chosen by no one. This is important, since one of the cards on offer each turn allows you to collect whatever is in the bin. This may, of course, be nothing. You score points for sets of things up to a certain number, but anything above that number and the collection will count against you.

The only photo I took of the game that was in focus.

It's quite a thinky game and I didn't really get to grips with it. I like to blame Joe's German beer, which he was drinking from a chilled glass. This left little puddles of water wherever he put it on the table and it seemed no matter how often we cleaned up, there was one more patch of water. Very distracting.

Ian had a great third round, picking up lots of stuff from the bin. Joe and Sam ended the last round with a selection of things that would score Sam negative points, no matter which he chose. He cleverly chose the same that Joe did, meaning he wouldn't have to pick anything up at all.

Ian 46
Sam 40
Joe 36
Andrew 18

During this game Andy arrived. We pondered something a bit meaty and substantial, but before we chose one we decided on a quick game of Illusion.

This game of area judgement made its debut last week and Sam and Ian were both intrigued. Its a bit longer with five, especially since we began with four incorrect challenges, all being made by different players. We were amazed at how good we were at working out the ares of things, even if we did all have to make a conscious (and sometimes verbal) effort to remind ourselves to change colours from round to round.

In the end, another incorrect challenge (this time by Joe) finally gave Andy that crucial third point.

Andy 3
Andrew 2
Sam 1
Ian 1
Joe 0

Next up was Skull King, a trick taking game in a similar vein to Voodoo Prince. In this card game each player has to bid on how many tricks they will take this round, not unlike Contract Whist. Except, that the deck contains certain Special Cards, pirates, mermaids and the Skull King himself, which are more powerful than the usual suited cards.

The other difference to Contract Whist is that bidding for and winning no tricks gets you the Round Number x 10 in points. As such, the longer the game goes on, the more powerful it becomes.

I set off into an early lead and maintained it, keeping a hundred point gap between me and my nearest rival until round eight.

My nearest rival being Andy who was, at one point, in a distant last with -30 but had since put together a run of form. His early confusion was gone and we'd quite forgotten how he'd asked to change his bid after everyone else had bid and we had to remind him that, technically, that would be cheating.

Instead now he set up a grandstand finish, with him on 190 and me on 210. I bid an exceedingly possible three tricks and, since he doubted he could get four, he went for no tricks at all.

It was tense. At least, it was for us two. The other three weren't in contention, although we should note Sam's last minute dash into third place at Ian's expense. In the battle for the top, both of us completed our bids, but mine got me 60 points and Andy bagged a cool ton.

Andy 290
Andrew 270
Sam 140
Ian 80
Joe -20

Next was a request from Andy, who was keen to try Junk Art. This "Bandu with benefits" is fun but I always feel it overstays its welcome. While I don't dislike it, I prefer Bandu's simplicity.

Joe, meanwhile, admired Junk Art's aesthetic qualities and it's hard to argue. From my brutalist architecture to Joe's forgotten shelf in a garden shed, the structures were nice to look at.

Brutal

Joe's shed in the distance

Since Joe's table has a bit of a wobble, there was a strict No Elbows On Table rule. Sam also observed "Bandu breathing" (breath out with you head turned up and away from the table) in times of high excitement. Andy's habit of sometimes slamming cards down on the table often caused some consternation but no actual collapses. Joe, despite losing the cooperative round, ended with most fans.

Joe about to topple the tower

Joe 16
Andy 14
Andrew 12
Ian 12
Sam 8

Time was ticking on but we had enough time for one more game: Face Cards. This recent arrival also raised some interest after the blog post for last week, and now it was time to see how it played with more players.

Well, it was a bit slower. With Ian and Andy both on their fourth beer, there was a bit of analysis paralysis. I (still sober, teetotal for the night) lacked imagination with my chihuahua/lynx pair (both animals) and geisha/bride (both women) but I did get chosen, more often than not. Others were more ingenious, with Karl Marx being successfully linked to some kind of owl. I didn't take too many notes, but the scores fell in quite a orderly manner.

Andrew 11
Ian 11
Joe 8
Andy 8
Sam 8

And with that we were done. I slipped out, apparently unnoticed, into the night and home to bed. Thanks for the entertainment, guys. Let's do it again next week.

Take it to the Bridge

Notwithstanding Sam's epic journey through gaming on his holidays, it has been and remains a quiet summer here at GNN Towers. This week, like last week, we were three in number. Martin and I were returners, while the ailing Ian was replaced by Joe, back from his travels across game-friendly Germany.

I was late in arriving, and caught the second of two games of Omega, the game of surrounding your enemy that's a bit quicker than Go. In this game, cards are placed according to certain matching rules. You have to make a path behind your opponent while, of course, stopping them from doing the same to you. The game was notable for its tension, for Joe's lightning quick blitzkrieg at the end, and for the roll of kitchen towel that delineated the edge of the game.

Joe and Martin: one win each.

Next, Joe enticed us into trying Welcome To Centerville. This game of dice rolling and point collecting had its debut recently. Joe explained the rules to us and we were off.

I had no idea what a winning strategy was, so I just did what the dice told me. This lead to me being big in the world of politics despite my lack of ambition. Joe made an early grab for the media tile, only for Martin to steal it from him immediately.

Joe got hit by explainer's curse badly, as he saw his score shrink in the first round down to $8 and 4 Prestige while Martin and I were up in the twenties.

Then there was some luck for Joe as disaster struck, but he had the tile that kept him safe. Martin and I lost three buildings in the city, which meant Martin had no presence there at all. If that weren't insult enough for Martin, Joe repaid Martin's earlier deviousness by pushing him off the high scoring bridge and putting himself there instead.

This seemed to help, as the next scoring round was triggered and Joe suddenly had more money than any of us. He was still lacking in Prestige but his then current level of 18pts was a huge improvement.

As the game entered the final round, Joe turned into a new political movement, at one point controlling five of the six offices. I turned my attention to trees and buildings while Martin's tactic was thrown into disarray when Joe kicked him off the bridge again. It ended...

Andrew 67
Martin 52
Joe 47

It had a mixed reaction. Martin found it too Points Salad-y and called it "Long Yahtzee", and I was bemused for most of the game although I did find it quite tense once I realised I might actually win. Joe liked it.

I requested a game I already knew so the next up was Azul. It was a low scoring game. I entered round three with a very loaded board, and Joe and Martin were not forgiving in their tile choices. I maxed out the negative points row, with -14. Even though, I found myself at the end of the round in joint first, 20-20-17.

But by the end, the tiles eluded me. Martin got two colours and a column, Joe got a colour while I got a mere couple of rows.

Martin 66
Joe 51
Andrew 50

Next was Illusion, the fun game of area surveying. The game consists of a pack of cards. Each one has an abstract pattern consisting of red, green, blue and yellow. In each round a colour is nominated randomly and then the players have to play their card to the table, in a Timeline kind of way, in order of amount of that colour on the card. Or, you can challenge if you think that someone's made a mistake. Then the cards are turned over, revealing the percentage of each colour, and any mistake counts in the challenger's favour.

Green is the colour...

Are these really ascending amounts of green?

It's insane and you find yourself squinting at cards or trying to squash the shapes mentally to guess if one card has more red circular area than another card's multiple thin red lines.

In round two, I forgot what colour we were playing and Joe challenged me immediately, but I was right! That was the only point I got. Otherwise, it was between Joe and Martin with Joe finally winning. Still, since he could apparently discern a difference between 23% and 24% in the amount of a colour, so perhaps he deserved it.

Joe 3
Martin 2
Andrew 1

The next game we chose was Kribbeln, and so Das Exclusive was brought to the table in all its pomp. Just like Welcome To Centerville, Joe suffered a poor first round with it ending 8-8-2.

And, also just like Welcome To Centerville, his spirited mid game revival wasn't enough to get out of last.

Andrew 20
Martin 17
Joe 14

By now we'd all won two games, so what was the tie breaker? It was Face Cards, a strange game of trying to make pairs out of your six-card hand of completely dissimilar faces.

Separated at birth

Each player takes two cards from their hand that they think match. They keep one card in front of them and the other goes into a communal pile with the other players' and a few cards from the deck.

If your pair is successfully guessed by another player, then you both get a point. If your pair of faces come from different categories (ie, human face paired with animal face) you both get two points.

It was a lot of fun. I can't believe no one got my Martin Luther / Manta Ray pairing. I thought it was obvious.

Martin 17
Joe 16
Andrew 9

A very enjoyable evening. Thanks, guys.