All you guys care about is the Picts

I arrived at Joe's late to find a cupboard kitchen almost bereft of gamers - with hardy stalwarts Andrew and Martin not attending, and frequently-spotted peripherals happening on a collective absenteeism, there was just Joe, Katy, and Ian. Joe had no music playing and no offspring present. Even Sybil's tail seemed to wag with less mania than normal. But this was merely the calm before the storm...

They were playing Sheep and Thief, a new addition to Joe's collection. Because I only caught the end of it I can't give an entirely accurate description, but there was 7 Wonders-style drafting aligned to card-laying along with sheep moving, road and river building, and sheep rustling by virtue of a fox.

I know the latter because Katy stole three sheep from Joe, who was suitably unimpressed. The game did appear to fit the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing description, as it was feisty enough for a variant on the classic Dr Wall insult to come out more than once...

Katy 36
Joe 29
Ian 23

"At least it's more than zero" Ian said, heroically channelling Eeyore.

We debated what to play next, with Istanbul and Orleans both mentioned before settling on Jorvik, Stefan Feld's game of spiteful Vikings.  Well, they're not really spiteful, but it can sometimes feel that way. Like Beowulf it's a game whose mechanics fly in the face of its theme: this is a bidding game where however many people bid decide what the 'winner' - not necessarily the person who bids most - has to pay. What you're bidding on is cards, and they do various stuff in the way of point-scoring, but really the game is all about the bidding, broken up occasionally by raids from the Picts, who I usually saw off (for points) as Joe disdained mine and Ian's efforts at defending the collective - see post title.

We all enjoyed the swingy, screwy nature of it - but agreed the game is probably a little too long for what it is. Personally I felt an hour would have done it justice, but it took two. However repeat visits would probably bring that down substantially.

I didn't really play with a long-term plan, and went for short-term gains in the main, bolstered by my cards that gave me points for string (?) and one completed order, whereas the others each had at least two orders apiece. And Joe had a bit of string too. But my in-game chiselling had built me enough of a lead that I couldn't be caught:

Sam 52
Ian 41
Joe 29
Katy 25

We then blasted through a couple of attempts at Magic Maze, which has been explained in the previous post. Playing with Katy was a new experience - having grasped the logic of it all in our first (failed) attempt at pulling off the heist, she pretty much co-opted the Do Something piece and dictated events in the second game. It's supposed to be a co-operative really, but I think Katy won.

Then we played Perudo!

Ian needed a little convincing this was the best choice, so I offered him a lift home, and Joe broke out the dice. He also insisted that the cup lid could easily hide 19 dice underneath it, which brought much scorn from Katy and I. Oh, Joe, you hopeless optimist!

Katy was out first when she put too much faith in everyone else's numbers. It looked like Ian or I might be next, but then Joe got caught in a death spiral and went swiftly from the only person with five dice to the next one out!

At that point Ian was still palafico and I had the advantage of three dice. I played cagey with a low bid on twos and Ian - not unreasonably - gambled on a dudo - giving me my second win of the night.

I like these 4-player evenings!

All that remained was for Joe to prove that the cup lid could easily hide 19 dice, at which he failed miserably. Katy's opinion on fellatio, which came out candid and unbidden during Jorvik, is probably best left a mystery.

And whose fault is it you're here?

This week's official GNNing took place at Joe's - joining the host were Ben, Katy, Ian, Martin and myself (Sam). Martin was running a little late, so we began a game of Heckmeck/Pickonimo with the Extravurm expansion, where you can pick up extra (brat)worms and hire specialists to help you out. We were only ten minutes in when Martin rocked up, and he charitably joined us.

After Katy had mastered the art of rolling dice, the game moved reasonably quickly. But not quick enough. I don't think Extravurm was responsible because I recall this happening with the basic game - it can go on a bit. Luckily Martin was there to harass anyone who was applying any thought to their game. Ben and I were fighting it out for first for a while, before Joe and Martin swooped in on my bratworms, leaving me to share second with Ian:

Ben 9
Sam/Ian 7
Martin 4
Katy 2
Joe 1

Martin asserted that if he'd been there from the start, he would have won. But I think we'll stick with the final positions as they are.

Debate now broke out about what to play, with Joe keen on Jorvik and Katy getting excited over the chance to try out World's Fair 1893, the game of putting on exhibitions a century ago. Martin was pretty sure he would hate both of them, but I was surprised he went with the Feld game. While he, Joe and Ben began the intriguing bids (bid earlier: first choice, but progressively more expensive depending on how many others bid after you) myself Ian and Katy set up World's Fair 1893.

all the fun

This was reasonably accurately described by Martin as "a family friendly euro" and it's very neat and simple. The various exhibitions surround the ferris wheel, and on your turn you add a 'supporter' to any one area, and take the cards next to it. The game is then replenished with cards and the turns move on.

There are only three types of cards: Midway tickets to the ferris wheel (worth a coin, plus +2 coins if you have the most at the end of the round), Character cards (must be played on your next turn, giving you additional supporters) and Exhibition cards, which you can turn into points as long as they are accepted into the exhibition. And they get accepted through the strength of your supporters in the various areas; at the end of every round majorities here get both points and the option to submit their ideas (cards) into the exhibition.

Ian bemoaned his game for the first round, before completely obliterating us in the next two. Katy's strong start faded slightly, as I managed to sneak past her via my strong showing on tickets. But Ian's prestige at the show was by far the best; picking up heaps of points for his exhibition:

Ian 87
Sam 71
Katy 60

meanwhile, in Jorvik...

They were still playing Jorvik, so Katy convinced Ian and I to play Land Unter. It was now Katy's turn to complain about the game and subsequently win it, as we passed around what I think could reasonably be described as a great hand, a so-so hand, and a diabolical one. After two rounds I was leading, but I didn't play the so-so hand very well in the third, and drowned:

Katy 8
Sam 6
Ian 3

I'm not really sure how I feel about Land Unter. It's like 6Nimmt, but somehow 6Nimmt just feels more fun to me.

Jorvik was still playing and Martin was scratching his head a lot.

Martin, sans trick-taking

So we played Las Vegas. I announced I was going to complain about losing in order to win, but unfortunately this strategy failed me.

Vegas!

After taking the most cash in the first round, I picked up absolutely bugger all in the next two in a game of many many ties - in round two I think we threw practically all the money away.

Ian $320k
Katy $180k
Sam $170k

Jorvik had finally ended!

Martin 53
Joe 52
Ben 36

Martin announced that he liked the bidding, but everything else was shit. Joe liked the game. Ben was diplomatically silent.

With all six players now available and hearing no protests, I dealt out the cards for Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Normally I'm suspicious of games that utilise a colon in their name - as if the name itself isn't enough, they need a sub-header - but I'd heard good things about this fast-playing cross between Mysterium and Spyfall.

dancing bottle opener not included

All players have a secret role - one is the murderer, one is the forensic scientist, everyone else are the investigators. Apart from the forensic scientist, everybody is dealt 8 face-up cards in front of them: four possible murder weapons and four possible clues. Everyone closes their eyes and the murderer surreptitiously identifies to the forensic scientist which weapon they used, and which clue they left behind.

Katy's weapons and clues

Then the forensic scientist deals out some cards showing the location and circumstance of the murder. The scientist can't officially talk, but instead places a series of bullets on the cards that they hope will lead the investigators to identify the correct weapon/clue. The catch is, the cards can actually be misleading: in our game, Joe was the murderer and chose to kill using radiation poisoning and a syringe. But my cards asked me to identify how the murderer victim was dressed and what the location was: I chose 'elegant' and 'forest'  - but of course, if you're being poisoned, it doesn't have to be in a forest.

The investigators have 30 seconds each in each of the three rounds to solve the case: something Ian made Pinter-esque use of in round two, when all he managed to say was "hmmm". Certainly they had their suspicions of Joe, and accused him twice successfully identifying the weapon, but not the clue, and he made his escape!

Joe - wins.
Everyone else - doesn't.

Joe and I wanted to try it again but Martin had already played a Feld and he put his foot down. However, he was shortly to regret not keeping his veto dry... I popped to the loo as everyone agreed to play For Sale - but when I returned Ben was leaving, and For Sale had been replaced by Joe's game of - well, I'm not sure what it's a game of. It's called Catbox and is played by adding a card to a growing grid of cats in boxes. If the card you use has an empty box, you can cover a half of any card. If it doesn't you can only cover a quarter. Everyone has a secret identity of a particular coloured cat, and you're trying to create groups of matching cats.

cats in boxes

Unless you're the chiwawa, in which case you want to create groups of empty boxes.

It's a very weird game. It became obvious which identity everyone had (with the exception of Joe, who bluffed so well he was the chiwawa that he played himself into last place) and despite the fact that the rules are minimal, we kept getting them wrong.

Martin/Sam 27
Katy 25
Ian 24
Joe 22

I think I'm right in saying in everyone thought it was naff, although it was a more pleasurable experience than the actual catbox I have to manage at home. Even Joe, who desperately wanted to like it, seemed underwhelmed. So not a high spot of game design to end the night on, but an interesting experience all the same. Andrew - I hope - will add the leaderboard, but casting an eye over the results I'm sure Katy and Martin will be looking unassailable in their respective points/medals/ratio categories.

Oh, and the blog title relates to a discussion we had about the GNN family tree, which culminated with Martin asking who was responsible for Katy's presence. It was Adam.

Meanwhile, here's the Division with only one week left. Martin has surely sealed up the Points Ratio since he can't attend next week, and I doubt Katy's going to be caught either.