Flip off

Tonight was my first games night for a while, and I was keen to get back around the table after a stressful day which included an interview for my own job. I managed to crowbar board games into one of my answers so we'll see how that turns out. 

Assembled at Joe’s house was Sam, Ian, Adam T, Joe, Martin and newcomer Jo, making their introduction to the group thanks to Martin.

The seven of us sat and pondered our options: A jovial seven player game, or “a real game.” In the end we chose Flip 7. “It's the greatest card game in the world,” insisted Joe. “If you like pairs,” countered Adam, “prepare to be disappointed.”

It is basically Pairs but with numbers instead of fruit (1 to 12 cards of value 1 to 12) and a few special cards to spice things up: you can give a Freeze card to an opponent to stop them in their tracks, or there’s the Take Three card that you can give away or use on yourself.

Despite the photo, pointing at opponents isn't an integral part of the game

As for the game, I scored sensibly on every round whereas Ian, for whatever reason, scored nothing at all. Martin came painfully close to winning the whole game (we set a target of 100 points) with only his second hand, going bust with a hand that could have scored 110 if he’d survived. Jo, on the first card of their first game in their first games night, went bust immediately. “Welcome to Games Night!” said Martin. If that weren’t enough, Jo crashed out early again with a pair of fours. But Adam took the win, with only three scoring hands in the five rounds that we played. Nice work.

Adam 101

Andrew 88

Joe 80

Martin 39

Jo 24

Ian 0

As the game ended, with the verdict of the game decidedly split, we rearranged ourselves into two groups. Four of us (Joe, Jo, Martin and Sam) played Ride the Rails. Ian, Adam and I played Impusle. This was Ian’s first game in ages. In fact, the three of us last played each other on 25 September 2019. Amazingly, we even chose the same colours.

I built a lot: actually having every available ship on the board at one point, but I was stymied by the complete lack of move commands, meaning my deadly fleet mostly floated menacingly just out of reach.

Adam built a little points engine of Draw, Mine and Trade and then Ian attacked Adam, until Adam only had one ship left. With this lone cruiser, Adam retaliated and won - allowing himself to re-establish his fleet on the board.

I reach 14 points and, with my mega-fleet, should be in a winning position but I am stranded in space, picking up peanuts for my lone ship on the Sector Core. Ian attacked me while Adam got his factory working again and was able to go from last to first.

Adam 20

Andrew 16

Ian 15

Ride the Rails was still underway. I had listened in only long enough to hear Martin persuade Joe to join him by investing in yellow while Jo and Sam teamed up with orange shares.

We played Misfits, but I was already flagging after a stressful day. Ian began the game in a feisty mood, placing a triangle painting upwards on the table. After that, gravity did the rest. None of us escaped with at least one collapse and by the time Ride The Rails had ended, we were nowhere near finding a winner.

Scores on Ride The Rails

Jo 285

Martin 259

Sam 252

Joe 219

At this point I left, too tired to continue.

*Sam takes over narration

Joe and I were both mildly bamboozled by Ride the Rails' impressive opacity, but I think everyone enjoyed it. Now down to a six in Andrew's absence, we broke out some silly card games Jo had brought, the first of which was the wonderfully named Galaxy Cat Extension. 

Here we simply take turns to flip cards, before assigning them to anyone (including yourself) around the table, with goal to have matching cat cards making cats, and maybe some cat bodies in-between them if you're really lucky. And luck plays a definite part, as outside of Short Cats and Buddha Cats in the mix, that's pretty much the entire game. There was a lot of giving of unwanted feline gifts until the final count-up (I think when the deck ran out) at which point I found myself galaxy-bound:

Sam 16

Joe 6

Adam 4

Ian 3

Martin and Jo: both zero

Next up was the even sillier, although it may not seem immediately possible, Wanted Wombats. We also take turns to flip cards here, but now only for our own benefit. The deck is made up of £1k, £3k, £5k and £10k cards and before you flip you announce what you predict you'll get. If you're wrong, your turn is instantly over. If you're right, you can either bank it or push your luck with another card, and so on. 

This game prompted a lot of laughter, as it seemed 90% of the experience was going 'Oh shit' or variants thereof. If I recall correctly someone actually called a £10k (there are only two in the deck) and Jo rallied from their explainer's curse in Galaxy Cat Extension to take a win here. We played again and almost-namesake Joe took the win. At some point my son Joe was texting me as well and it got a bit confusing. 

Then Adam T departed as well and as a quintet we busted out way through For Sale. I'm not sure how but I took a win here - not like me - and then I departed as well. Not sure if the others played anything at the end?

Everyone meet in San Francisco

 The rain that had peppered Bristol’s streets faded away in the evening, allowing walkers and cyclists alike the chance to converge on Joe’s kitchen for another night of games.

Before I'd even arrived, I was informed of an early game between Joe and Sam of Crokinole which was won by Joe.

I had to take a detour to a pharmacy so my ETA went back to 8pm and when I finally arrived, they (Joe, Adam T, Sam, Martin and Ian) were just finishing a game of Money.

Martin won, top of a crazy spread of scores that left Joe bemused as to what exactly he did so wrong. 

Martin 840

Adam 510

Ian 280

Sam 210

Joe 40

We were currently a six and we were expecting Katy at 9, dashing over from her book club. What could we play in an hour? Around The World In 80 Days was mooted, but probably too long with six.

Instead, Ian,  Sam and Joe played Foundations of Metropolis. A game I still haven't played but looks like area-control mixed with tetris. 

Adam, Martin and I pretended to think about what to play but, with a copy of Impulse on the table, it was never in doubt. 

We set up with only the slimmest of rules refreshers needed. We began in quite a generous mood, I put a draw card on the “impulse” (the communal row of cards we can all use) that allowed us to all take more cards into our hands and this seemed to set a trend. Adam even checked the rules regarding whether a player can draw more cards if they're at the hand limit. 

Over on Foundation, Ian made some disparaging remark about Joe not having any money. Sam, meanwhile, cried out “tear down those schools!” with delight. In the end, Joe upends Ian’s dismissive attitude towards the poor with a win.

Joe 105

Sam 101

Ian 86

As for Impulse, we were pretty close together until Martin attacked Adam and landed on 12 points - the level from which he usually pushes on to the game-winning 20-point mark. I had to do something so, after Adam sadly defended himself against further attacks from me, I used up most of my cards and all of my plan in one big push for victory. I got as far as 16 before I stalled. Still, I told myself, if Martin doesn’t reach 20 points, I’m a certain winner!

What a delusional fool I was.

Martin 20

Andrew 16

Adam 7

Now Katy was here. I don’t remember if there was a slight staggering in the end of games or if fate just kept us in the same groups, but Katy joined Sam, Joe and Ian for a delightful romp of Around The World In 80 Days. Martin, Adam and I decided on another old familiar, San Francisco.

This meant that one group was playing a game in a location that appearing in the other group’s game. I don’t think that’s happened since Wallenstein and Castles of Burgundy were played on the same night.

In fact, we noticed that 80 Days contained a lot of locations with games named after them (London, Yokohama etc…). We considered a variant whereby landing in a location meant you had to all actually play that game. The longest board game in the world!

We started at about the same time, with Katy promising us that she’d let us know when they arrive in San Francisco.

As for the games, Joe spent 12 days going from Bombay to Calcutta on an express elephant. Ian, for the record, was first to get to San Francisco and the first to return to London. [spoilers for the original novel] And he didn’t even need the International Date Line quirk to succeed [/spoilers]

Ian 72

Katy 73

Joe 90

Sam stuck in New York

As for the real San Francisco, it was all about Martin. Whatever I tried, nothing seemed to stop him from picking up massively beneficial cards. He built skyscrapers, completed rows, got architect tokens. Adam and I were reduced to fighting over majority points for most workers in a row. My two skyscrapers at least stopped it looking like I hadn’t even tried.

Martin 16½

Adam 8

Andrew 7

At this point, not quite ten o'clock, I chose the sensible option and left. I missed the rousing finale of 80 Days but got the scores from Sam in a late night message.

Then I learnt about their two attempts at So Clover. The first ended 31/36 but was notable for Joe’s clue of Dildo for double/end as “it was the only thing I could think of with two ends.”

Then they tried again with 34/36! Oh, So Closver!

Thanks all. Special as always.

Lazy Susans in Spaaaace!

 I knocked on Joe’s front door at 8pm and while I waited, Sam sent me the results of the game they’d just finished which meant I was able to congratulate Joe on his victory at Oh My Brain as he opened the door.

Downstairs sat Sam, Martin and Adams T and H. Since there were six of use we began with Challengers. Sam wasn’t hugely keen and so he was given the seat where he didn’t need to move for each match. I started well, but a victory in round one is barely a victory at all when you consider the rich pickings later in the game. I didn’t win again, consistently losing as my bench overflowed. I slimmed down my deck in round five and then consistently lost due to running out of cards.

Martin decided to go big on pyrotechnicians who then never came out at the right time so their super power never triggered and Adam T used UFOs to draw extra cards and had two overpowered Stable Boys. These were the winning tactics, it turned out, as they both qualified for the final.

Martin 37

Adam T 37

Joe 30

Adam H 17

Sam 8

Andrew 3

Martin and Adam T faced off in the grand final while the rest of us packed away the rest of the game in a faint display of disinterest. Sorry about that but at least we didn’t start putting chairs up on the tables. In the end Martin won when he played a Villain and caused Adam T’s bench to fill up.

Then we split into two groups. Sam, Joe and Adam H chose Planet Unknown, whose huge box put me off slightly as I imagined a Feast For Odin style epic. By contrast Martin, Adam T and I went for the tiny-boxed Impulse. In between these two space-themed games sat a bowl of snacks that, if I recall right, Joe described as being “over-flavoured” and he wasn’t wrong. They were a shade of red that, if you saw it on a plant, you’d assume it was poisonous. And when we ate them, we went through a journey of saltiness, spiciness, overwhelming aftertaste and finally an almost automatic desire for just one more.

The reason for Planet Unknown’s large box was revealed when they set up – in the middle of the play area was a large circular receptacle for all of the pieces that the player would need to tessellate across their planet’s surface. And this rotated! Finally, a game that comes with its own lazy Susan.

I know nothing about the game, nor if you can turn the lazy susan as you wish or if there are rules guiding its use, but they seemed to have fun.

Adam 67

Joe 58

Sam 51

As for Impulse, it was very pacifist with no battles at all, even if Martin and I sabotaged each other. Not that we were picking on each other deliberately. It’s just that Adam T was always out of reach, sitting in his corner mining and trading for points.  Most of my points came from trading too. And then Martin went from 12 points to the game-winning target of 20 in a single turn and the game ended.

Martin 20

Andrew 9 (? I think)

Adam T 8 (ish)

Since Planet Unknown was still being explored we played Kingdoms, a very simple Knizia game that is as mean and cunning as you’d expect. Place tiles with values on the board and then put your castles next to them to score an entire row and column. But beware negative numbers, dragons that scare off positive numbers, mountains that split rows and columns in two and goldsmiths that double your score, for better or worse. Adam sighed that he wasn’t doing enough to hurt Martin, and he was right. I had a good round three to make myself look like a contender for a while.

Martin 183

Andrew 176

Adam T 169

After Planet Unknown had finished they played Art Robbery. Don’t know what happened except for the result

Adam H won!

Joe 2nd

Sam: most points but least alibis.

At this point everyone was together again but not for long as it was half past ten and I had to dash. Even the sight of Not That Movie could tempt me. I’ve no idea what happened but according to the late night messae from Sam, they didn’t do very well: just a score of 24.

Then the Adams left and Sam, Joe and Martin played So Clover twice: 16 out of 18 and 13 out of 18.

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

The Balance Of Trade

I arrived at Joe’s at the tail end of a game of Zero Down. It’s been a while since I’d seen it. So long, in fact, that I didn’t recognise it. I recognised everyone sitting around the table, though. Sam, Martin, Ian, Adam T, and Joe.

Martin 7

Ian 9

Joe 19

Adam 34

Sam 45

After this, Martin and Adam were keen on Impulse and I happily joined in, which Martin was relieved about since Impulse is not an easy game to teach. Adam sped off into an early lead, trading cards for big points. But it was too big a lead and he made himself a target. I happened to have a cruiser in striking distance and so, goaded by Martin and with Adam within easy reach of a win, I set off to vanquish him. I’m not a big fan of player elimination, but I didn’t have a huge amount of choice.

We went into battle and our initial card from our hand totalled up to the same amount. It was all o
n the draw of a card each from the deck. Adam drew a 1, I drew a 2. I won, and Adam rued his decision to hold back a card that would’ve tipped the war in his favour.

But then Martin went from 9 to 18 points in a single move, just two away from victory. I needed ten points, and I was certain of six. I had to rely on lucky draws from the deck for a tradeable card for those extra few points but, unlike Joe, I am not known for my lucky draws and I came up short.

Martin 20

Andrew 16

Adam out

Sheepy Time was coming to an end so we quickly sped through a game of Whale Riders: The Card Game.

Andrew 61

Martin 61

Adam 59

As for Sheepy Time, Ian won. Not bad for someone who, early on, noted that he was twenty points behind everyone else. A check of the rules told us that, officially, there are no second or third places.

Ian won

Sam and Joe lost

Now Adam made sort of going home noises, but was tempted to stay on for a game of So Clover. Adam impressed by writing “Dragula”, leading us to match “Camp” and “Myth”. Joe lowered the tone when he matched Shower with Golden. We were going okay until we slipped up on Ian’s clover, thinking Spartacus clued the word “alliance,” but it was just meant to be “old”

Score 34 out of 36

With Adam still making moves to go home, we tempted him with a rousing finale of Stinker. We all gave ourselves a rule-stretching 23 letter tiles and got cracking. Sam began with six ‘A’s in his pile of letters. Highlights were:

Real reason for world war two – Goebbels stole a razor (Martin)

Substitute for under pants - toasted gonads (Adam)

First thing to do on Jupiter – Radiate Smugnity (ian)

Title of a new Bond Film – Time to Strangle (Joe)

How to avoid the draft into the army – Run, dig a hole, scream (Sam)

My answer to "The road to Hell is paved with..."

By the end, our misspelling was very creative with Sam using a B on its back as an M and I had an A pointing right as a D.

Ian and Martin won with three cards each.

Adam and I left at this point while the other played High Score (but surely every game could be called High Score) using a collapsible dice arena.

Martin 13

Joe 12

Sam 11

Ian 6

And finally they played Cross Clues and got 19 out of 25.

Thanks all. See you next week.

Wrong end of the sticht

This week witnessed the return of Katy, so that seven gaming stalwarts sat around Sam's kitchen table (Sam, Joe, Adam T, Martin, Ian, Katy and me). In fact, we began with eight, since Sam's son Joe joined us for a round of Fuji Flush.

It had been a while since we had last played it, but our biggest concern was not being able to talk about dick points in front of a child. A real shame since we began by all putting down 2s until Ian cleared the table with a 15. A big swinging dick, and we couldn't even mention it.

Adam 0
Joe M, Joe B, Martin 1
Ian, Andrew, Sam 2
Katy 3

Then Joe M requested a round of Insider, which we quickly cranked out. I was the master, and the word was Thermal Power Plant. During the guessing round, Katy, Sam and Joe B all suggested power plants, seemingly out of nothing, but despite that it was Ian who was the Insider. He'd won by using the old "quiet and mysterious" method.

Now we split into two groups. Three of us (Sam, Katy and Martin) played Hats. Not the album by The Blue Nile, but a set collecting game that comes with its own cookie. With it being so far away (again, I was perched at the end of the table) I know little about it. Not even what the cookie is for, but they played twice with Sam winning both games. I only noted the scores for the second, though.

Sam 29
Katy 28
Martin 26

We (Adam, Ian, Joe and me) chose Was Sticht?, a game whose box has been taken to several GNN nights but was rarely chosen. Until tonight. It's a trick taking game, but to describe it like that is like saying Kafka's Metamorphosis is about a man who just doesn't want to get out of bed.

Instead of dealing out the cards, they are distributed through a sort of mini game in which each player chooses a card from a column of a grid displaying all of the cards face up and then the "dealer" (who knows the trump suit) tells everyone who won among those four cards. In this way we are expected to deduce what the trump card is and adjust our choices accordingly.

Once that is done, each player has to chose one of the five targets they selected right at the start of the game, with criteria like No Tricks or Last Trick. If you complete this target then you discard it and the winner is the first to discard all five. Although, right from the start, we had agreed to play just four rounds. On top of all of this, lots of other rules kept cropping up during the game like someone who can't admit defeat in an argument and keeps coming back saying "and another thing..."

I found it all hard going at first, but by round four I think we'd all got the hang of it as we had gone from hesitant questioning to silent contemplation before our turns. This was certainly a good sign and I'd like to try it again soon.

Andrew 3 targets completed
Joe, Adam, Ian 2

Was Sticht took long enough that the other three squeezed in a game of Yokai and Eggs of Ostrich while we were in the final stages. In Yokai, Martin struggled to interpret his colleagues actions, saying to Sam that "I thought you were being clever," to which Sam bluntly replied "No." Nevertheless, they succeeded and were Glorious according to the scoresheet.

Then, in Eggs of Ostrich, Martin complained about how brutal it was. I think the score was

Martin 8
Sam 5
Katy 4

At this point, we were all available for mingling and, astonishingly, Toad in the Hole was offered up as a snack. This beat even Adam's offering of bite size sausage rolls at the start of the evening. The whole snack scene is seeing a revival that even Knizia would be jealous of.

Anyway, as for games, Adam, Ian and I chose Impulse while Sam, Joe, Martin and Katy played Senators, despite Katy's attempts at steering them towards Hit Z Road.

Senators was notable for Joe offering to buy olives in a creepy tone of voice. Katy seemed to enjoy her first game so maybe there's a chance of a revival?

Martin 9
Joe 8
Katy 6
Sam 5

During Impulse we started slow and with a remarkable lack of fighting coupled with a large amount of available Build actions meant that our space sector got pretty crowded.

Ian declared that he'd cocked up his techs and I was looking forward to a win when Adam snuck in and hit twenty points before I got a chance.

Adam 20
Andrew 14
Ian 11

While we finished Impulse, the other four amused themselves with a quick burst on Belratti. With Sam, Joe and Martin playing, some of the deductions about which painting belonged to which theme had an air of cryptic crossword to them. Sam tried to link Recycle to "re-sickle" until Joe told him that the drawing in question was a scythe. Martin tried to link Eye and Saw because it made "eyesore". Despite all this overthinking they did well, scoring 13-3.

Finally, we played Just One. This is a word game that I just don’t get. I keep expecting normal words but instead I get pop culture references or, as was tonight, an actual name. Despite clues to the moon landing and the other clue “Lance” I couldn’t get “Armstrong.” Sorry. Joe gave away the word by saying it out loud (Zeus) meaning a re-deal was necessary. Martin’s word was “passion” and when he saw our remaining clues: Desire, Throes and St Matthew, he said “Jesus Christ…” with an air of despair. At the mention of JC, I sort of chuckled and from that he was able to deduce the clue. Phew.

After this,we were finished. Thanks all, and hope to see you all again soon.

Creating a Stinker

I arrived late to Joe's for this week's games night and found that the decision as to what game I wanted to play had already been made for me. I was to join Adam T and Martin in a game of Impulse while Katy, Joe and Ian broke out Quest for El Dorado.

It had been a while since I played Impulse but no rules refresher was needed. I did refer to the player aid a couple of times, though. Katy, on the other hand, needed a full rules explanation prompting a couple of us to ask if it was her first game. (She said it wasn't but the last time had been about two years ago.)

Impulse was cagey at first and rather benign, apart from Martin sending a cruiser through Adam's Space Quadrant (possibly not officially terminology) and knocking out a couple of transporters on the way. But Martin's trading strategy started to generate points so when he hit 18, just two from a win, my full compliment of ships leapt into battle, knocking out three of his ships and removing him from the sector core. Then Adam sprang into action, with an extensive move plus plan that got him to 19 points but no further. Martin had the Impulse equivalent of a tap in to take the win.

Martin 20
Adam 19
Andrew 14

In El Dorado, Ian began very slowly but, once he’d scratched his foot (he even needed to take his shoe off) he was back in contention. Joe ploughed through the barriers while Katy sneaked along behind him. In the end, Joe got stuck on the last tile, allowing both Katy and Ian to reach the goal. Katy won the tie-breaker with a single barrier to Ian’s none.

Katy, first!
Ian, second
Joe, last

We ended more or less at the same time, so we dug out Decrypto as our next game. To avoid moving chairs and having to make up a team name, we decided on Team Impusle versus Team Dorado. Team Impulse had a tricky selection of words, all seemed to be thematically linked to food: leg, game, pizza and restaurant. Those last two, especially, looked difficult. I thought about asking if we could swap one out but Martin said he thought we’d be fine and I didn’t push the matter in case I looked like a sissy.

I usually take a photo of the clue sheets to remind me of how clever we were but I forgot. Martin and I misunderstood Adam’s clue of “face” thinking it went with Game when it should have gone with Pizza (or vice versa). Luckily Team Dorado got their second miscommunication in round six and my clues-as-a-story technique got us through that round safely.

Team Impulse, MI5 secret service
Team Dorado, M5 motorway

Next we introduced Ian and Adam to the unique thrills of Stinker. This time, it seemed to take a while for us to get going, so we went around twice. And we kept score, just to see if it was a pointless as it first appeared. I came up with this for “What do humans think most about.”

It was supposed to be “Darleen from Roseanne”, but Neighbours just seemed easier to spell, given my meagre resources. And then, after a whole six rounds of trying to be clever, Katy finally won something with “ooh a oo ah ah” which was something about what you should say to Sigmund Freud.

Andrew 50
Martin 32
Ian 16
Joe 13
Adam 13
Katy 11

What a shame it’s too fast moving for extensive notes because the second round saw a return to the heights of hilarity. I wrote “It is veri wonki” for something that a Pyramid-building slave might say and that's about it.

But with that, we were done.

EDIT: Except for a game of Heul Doch Mau Mau, after Ian and Adam had gone. I don't remember it at all and if it weren't for Martin reminding me in the comments, it may have gone unnoticed by history.

Martin 77
Katy 72
Andrew 69
Joe 44

After more fun than is recommended by the World Health Organisation, we tottered back home and to bed. Next week, though, summer hols finally take their toll. With Sam still away and Joe absent too, who knows where the determined vacation-less few with find themselves?

A Commanding Presence

This week's GNN saw numbers fall to an almost non existent level of just three. And, with Ian expected later, I rolled into Martin's house at eight to the sight of a couple of Japanese two player games on the table.

We started with The Throne And The Grail, one of the games I bought for Martin the last time I was in Japan. This is a strange kind of bidding game. Strange enough that I immediately regret calling it a bidding game. Each player has a hand of five and they take turns playing those cards into the centre. But, instead of playing a card, you may pick up the five most recently played cards. Those go on the table in front of you and will make up your final tableau. The trouble is, once you have picked up, you can't pick up again that round but you have to keep playing cards into the centre. This means your opponent can get whatever is left. This may be a good thing or not.

The end of game scoring is simple majority on the four suits gets you points, as do the numbered cards (some positive, some negative) that score their face value.

The other way to instantly win is to have all three pieces of the Grail. When I saw I'd been dealt the third when Martin already had two in his tableau, I put on my best poker face to keep him in the dark. Didn't work, but I still managed to avoid giving him the piece for the instawin. Still lost, though.

I forgot to take a photo of the game, but I did photograph the message in the fortune cookie that I gave to Martin in recognition of his win.

Martin 24
Andrew 12

Then we played Khmer. A cunning game of making sure that the overall value of the cards in your hand is the same or less than the communal cards on the table. Each player gets six cards in their hand, value one to six (in the pack there are two of each and six sixes). Each player takes turns in playing a card to the centre or taking a card from the centre (which is then put face up in front of them, as it's a definite part of their final score) or you can discard a six. Or, of course, you can knock if you think your total is close enough to win.

Martin wiped the floor with me, but I enjoyed it a lot and we kept playing until Ian arrived.

Martin 6
Andrew 1

With the three of us together, the games usually end up being the combative, strategic area control type of thing and tonight was no different. Welcome back to Impulse, the tiny space epic played out in less than an hour.

In Impulse, everything is a card. The map is made of cards, the bombs, minerals, your defences, goods for trade, etc are all represented by the cards. A remarkably efficient design, albeit one heavily laden with rules.

But once we'd had our rules refreshed, we were off. I lost a cruiser early on to Martin's sabotage card. In fact, he threatened to just hop back and forth between his Command and Sabotage cards, hoping to pick us off one by one. It certainly pushed him quickly up to seven points.

However, the next time he tried it, he failed, and Ian's fleet sailed impassively by. And when Ian attacked back, he won! Martin suddenly looked weak. I, at this time, was mostly hiding in the corner, trading cards for points. Before long Ian and I had caught Martin up, and the scores were 9-9-8, with Ian in last on the score track but looking strong on the map.

Martin was stuck by his bad luck on the map. His third of the map was either command cards to move or sabotage cards to attack adjacent ships. It was a limited range of options. Ian made a mega-move that sent him from eight to fifteen points, but left him with few cards. I used some Draw commands to fill out my hand and Martin tried to sabotage Ian and failed again.

At the end of one of my turns, Ian was on 18, and bound to hit the game-winning score of 20 on his next turn. I was on 17, about to hit 18, so I needed two more points to win. I attacked Ian. But, it was an optimistic gamble. I had no reinforcements, and Ian won easily. Which gave him two points, and the victory.

Ian 20
Andrew 17
Martin 11

Next we played Azul. This game of tile taking is such an old familiar, it's hard to believe it's barely a year old.

After a low scoring round one for everyone, I find myself with three unfinished rows. I play cautiously and I'm pleased to only get -1 in penalties, but also just 4 points overall for that round.

During round three, Martin suffers an existential crisis, repeatedly muttering "What am I doing?" He is later gripped by indecision over where to place three blue tiles he picked up. In this row? Or this row? This literally went on for a minute. Maybe a minute and a half.

Round four ended with Martin leading 37-29-29. Round five was a dream for him, as he completed colours and columns for bonus points, while Ian had a nightmare final round.

Martin 75
Andrew 64
Ian 54

By now I made noises about heading off, but I convinced myself to stay by suggesting Eggs Of Ostrich as our night cap.

And I'm glad I did, since I ended the winner, thanks to an uncontested amber in round three. Notable events were mostly confined to round two, where we all played our Two Bag cards on three separate occasions.

Andrew 27
Martin 24
Ian 21

And so, with a victory each (not including the two player games, of course) we disbanded for the night. Thanks to Martin for hosting. Here's hoping for more next week, but the grip of the summer holidays has been tighter this year than it's ever been.