Steppin' Out

Anja, Steve and Louie were our genial hosts at Stepney Walk this week (-Lennon was tucked up in bed) and we assembled at the slightly later time of 8pm - or just after, in my case. I walked in to find everyone perusing Louie's Star Wars cross-section book. As fascinating as the inside of a AT-AT is though, there were games to be played. Louie's pumpkin clock was ticking so Joe gathered the hosts along with Adam H and Gareth to play Kakerlaken Poker, whilst Martin introduced Ian and I to Wibbell creator Bez's A Game about selecting seven cards, speedily searching for synergies. Once you know the title, you kind of know the game, except how you get them: each of us begin with a stack of seven cards and one in our hand. Simultaneously, we can take (one at a time) cards from a shared tableau of nine, but must replace the cards we take from the top one of our stack. As soon as anyone's stack runs out, they count down from seven and that's the end of the game: the cards score as it says in the title, synergising - or not - with each other to harvest points. 

My card-in-hand I started with rewarded me for having creatures with eyes, so that was my main focus, and fortunately there was always a card with at least one eye on out there. I raced to the end and Ian and Martin ran out of time: which means they were forced to take what was left of their unknown stack as their hand. 

Sam 23
Ian 15
Martin 13

The whole game took about two minutes, so we cracked into one of my UKGE purchases from last week, Alpha Beasts Attack. This is a co-op word game where you must attempt to use as many letters as you can each round, with limited communication. If you can't, each unused letter becomes a scar, and if you receive x number of scars you lose. Winning involves cashing in your defeated monsters (ie used letters) in sets to reveal scavenge cards, which might be helpful tools, or brains. X number of brains wins you the game. I forgot to take photos, but this was me learning the game at the weekend...

We finished triumphantly - after a very tricky penultimate round, and an injection of beerspill from excited poker players - around the same time as Kakerlaken ended, with Steve, to Louie's delight, the unfortunate loser. I think there were some insults exchanged, although I can't now recall them specifically. With a quick reshuffle, Gareth and Joe joined Martin and I to investigate Inside Job, whilst everyone else played 7 Wonders.

Inside Job is a trick-taker where, not unlike The Crew, players have missions to complete. They're easier here than in the The Crew, but unlike the space/sea co-operative fundertaking, here one player is the Insider, on a secret mission to undermine the actual missions of the other agents. 

Suspicious

Standard trick-taking rules apply - except to the Insider, who can lie and pretend that they "can't" follow suit and were forced to do something terribly unhelpful instead. Whomever wins a trick gets an Intel token. If the Insider gets five intel tokens, they instantly win. If the agents complete x number of missions, they win. If neither happen, there's some ill feeling and accusations to decide things. 

Poor Gareth had to play his debut game as the Insider, retaining rules, forging strategy and feigning innocence all at the same time, and we figured it out when he not unreasonably just tried to win as many tricks as he could as quickly as possible. We played a second game and eventually realised it was Gareth again. Then on a third attempt it was a little more hazy, but I think we all suspected Joe to the point of near-certainty. Suspicion, however, doesn't guarantee victory: Joe grabbed his fifth intel to take an Insider win. 

I'm not sure what happened in 7 Wonders except Adam was slightly forlorn at the end, and Ian quietly triumphant. Louie went to bed, possibly in disgust. 

Ian 58

Steve 53

Anja /Team Adam and Louie 50 each

The time was pushing toward ten and I had to leave relatively early to get Stan to school for a madcap overnight dash to France. So whilst Gareth departed - also bound for bed - and the others set up Mille Fiori, Ian, Adam and I played a slightly protracted game of So Clover, all of us pondering at length and muttering resentful aspersions at our word combos. At the other end of the table, it was slightly more boisterous...

But So Clover was fun in it's own thinky, uncompromising way. Adam suggested Ian and I play a two-hander whilst he struggled on with his clues, but we were happy doodling on our clovers.  

"Is that a dog?" Adam said, peering over at Ian's drawings.

"It's batman" said Ian.

As it turned out, Adam's time spent proved worthwhile when it was the only six we got (mine and Ian's clovers were 4s). I didn't take any pics here but I do remember his clue of Sensed for Silence/Bouquet. Not a high-fiving score, but a reasonable one. 

I had to rush off at this point, but I'm told Mille Fiori ended with some colossal scores!

Steve 265

Martin 229

Joe 215

Anja 196

Incredible stuff. Sorry I wasn't there to see the glassblown madness. Thanks all, especially our hosts, and see you next week!

Harbour Master Blaster

The recent tradition of gamers just passing through continued this week at GNN. Today's arrival was Garry, a writing chum of Sam. Along with these two were Joe (the host), Dan, Martin, Katy, Adam (the new one) and me.

Early on: crisps and... conversation?!

We begun in glorious co-op mode with Just One. Early on, Joe chose his usual path of obscure cultural references and when he didn't, he kept syncing with Adam. Although, truth be told, there were very few duplicates. Katy had the worst luck when she had to guess "sand" with only three clues. But she did it! Dan’s use of “band” as a clue for “tool” worked wonders when Katy used “Tool” as a clue for “Music” when he was guessing. And we went on to get eleven out of twelve, finally impressing the usually snide score track, which read "Awesome! That's a score worth celebrating!"

And celebrate we did. With more games. Joe and Katy were introduced to Sol by Sam and Martin. Dan and Garry were introduced to Potato Man by Adam and I.

Potato Man was fun, with a couple of evil potatoes being vanquished by Super Potato Man. I, however, felt awkward about referring to the green suit as Sexy Potato Lady in front of three people I didn't know so well. Meanwhile, I had a good couple of early rounds while Adam was stung by Explainer's Curse.

Andrew 25
Dan 19
Garry 17
Adam 10

After that, with the sun on the other side of the table still looking pretty stable, I suggested Manila. This fun game of betting and luck-based piracy was new to our newcomers, so I talked them through the rules. Was I hit by Explainer's Curse? Or was it more of a case of Adam finding a winning formula and milking it for all it was worth. His (almost) monopolizing of Harbour Master, who then invested in blue cloth which sent the share price rocketing up and brought the game to an end sooner than I was expecting.

My attempts at piracy to try and thwart Adam's relentless victory came to nothing, but luckily Brown stuff (coffee?) also hit the highest level which bailed me out.

Adam 168
Andrew 105
Dan 70
Garry 64

It lacked the usual swings of outrageous fortune that Manila is so good at, but I think the two newbies liked it.

But what of Sol? They played the 'vestigial structure' variant, allowing them to build in the outer three rings of the board. It's the same variant that I'd played before but I had no idea it had such a grand name.

Katy began slowly, and was still on two points while the other three had moved into the low teens. Martin hardly built anything but he did build two gates in a row, at the end of which Joe built one of those energy transmission thingies in a kindly gesture of "hey, come on in!'

Katy clawed her way out of last while Sam managed to resist the urge to hurl his ships into the sun and it seemed to work for him.

Sam 26
Martin 19
Katy 17
Joe 13

We were still out of sync at this point. I brought out High Society, hoping to time its ending with the finale of Sol but I misjudged it. The game, new to Garry, was mean as ever. Garry picked up an early "1/2" card, meaning he was rich enough to pick up the 10 card. But he was in the strange situation of always bidding against players who thought that the cards were worth twice as much as he did. As such, despite picking up a "x2" card later on, he lost due to lack of funds. It ended with both he and Dan on one card left in their hands, but Dan's was the $25 million card.

Dan 12
Andrew 6
Adam 6
Garry Out! (But scored 11)

Sol had ended and they banged out a quick Kribbeln. And what a game it was. I only caught the end, but even in those few rolls, drama ensued.

Sam was poised to win, needing to beat 29 with his six dice, rolled 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 2. So close. He picked up the 2 and rolled it... a one! How cruel.

Then Joe, also needing to beat 29, rolled 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 3. But instead of just picking up the three to roll again, he picked up the three and four. Audacious! And he rolled a 6-6! Amazing. It put him in joint first with Martin and won the game on the tie-breaker.

Joe 22 (plus highest Krib)
Martin 22
Sam 20
Katy 15

Then it was time for Adam to leave. I suggested he could join in by phone if we played Incan Gold, and the mention of this triggered a sudden desire in Joe, wiping aside the previous suggestions of 6nimmt or Tomate Karate. We played Diamant, the new version of Incan Gold, where flimsy paper tents are replaced by sturdy cardboard chests and Zombie Ladies are sadly gone, with rolling logs of spikes in their place.

Katy stayed in longest in round one and got a 17 card all to herself! After that, it was all a matter of trying to catch her. Martin decided the only way to win was to stay in longer than she did. Sam went in the opposite direction, getting out early as soon is it seemed profitable (picking up a rare artifact in round three). And it could’ve worked if the more adventurous among us had had a little more bad luck. Instead, it was a high scoring game.

Katy 54
Andrew 33
Martin 31
Sam 31
Joe 29
Garry 27
Dan 21

And despite coming last, Dan made a note of the game on his phone, declaring that he was going to buy it. A convert!

And then Katy and I departed, with the clock just passing eleven. The rest carried on with Kakerlaken Poker. Thanks to some notes from Sam, I can tell you that “Dan began haemorrhaging stink bugs” was as a remarkably evocative description of the game as you could wish for. Garry, professing uselessness at the real poker, began badly. And just as Martin hit two of something, he passed a card to Dan, saying it was a stink bug. Dan didn’t believe him, but Martin spoke the truth.

Dan loses
Everyone else wins.

Thanks to Sam for the late night results, and thanks to all for joining in for a fun evening. I wonder who our travelling visitor will be next week.

Defecto!

A balmy evening at Joe's house, with the back doors flung wide and Sybil visible on the table, watching the horizon for who knows what. Cats? Birds? Or gamers. Surely she knows Tuesdays by now. We began as a four - the host, Ian, Martin and myself (Sam) with Andy Mosse due to join shortly.

First onto the table was Pikoko, Martin's trick-taking game with three-dimensional peacocks®. Like Hanabi, everyone is unable to see their own cards, but can see everyone else's. Like contract whist, you try to predict how many tricks you'll win - but unlike contract whist, you also predict how many tricks everyone else will win too, and play the cards of the player on your left.

It was an interesting juggle of limited knowledge, speculation, and prediction - what other cards will get played and when. As Andy noted, the peacock theme was probably stumbled on when they were figuring out a card display for the players. We played one round, which was enough for Martin  to display his inherent mastery of trick-takers:

Martin 11
Sam 10
Ian 9
Joe 8

By now Andy was here, so Martin proposed a five-player race around the galaxy in the form of Powerships, another game that reminded me of others: specifically Formula D (speed control) and Robo Rally (damage impeding your control). Each player sets off to pass three buoys and then get to the finish line, avoiding obstacles (planets, dust, moving comets, the edge of the board) and utilising moving elements along the way.

Your speed is controlled by three-sided dice: on your turn you can first rotate the single side of a hex and then move: in moving, you may add a die to what you have in order to speed up, discard a die to slow down, and either keep the numbers you have or roll for new ones. If you hit an obstacle, your ship takes damage and movement is compromised!

Around the first buoy and I surged ahead, stretching towards the second one whilst the others negotiated stage one. But in surging ahead, I failed to plan ahead, and bumped catastrophically into a planet, sending me off course. Meanwhile, Joe was taking the long way around the edge of the board, followed by Martin, whilst Ian and Andy negotiated the shorter but busier centre.

The drama ramped up as they made their way to buoy number three, with Martin first around it, but taking a wide berth again. He got a shock to see Joe, in some kind of galactic Nissan Micra, turning gently around the buoy before shooting off toward the finish, which happened to be Earth. It was a close-run thing, with Martin nabbing the win seconds before Joe rolled over the line.

Martin leads the charge, with Joe and Andy in pursuit

Ian and Andy fought it out for third, and Andy took it. I was still way way behind, but did at least get around the third buoy and nearly pulled off a dramatic finish when I almost sailed through the sun. But it would still have left me fifth...

1. Martin
2. Joe
3. Andy
4. Ian
5. Sam

Great game, and considerably preferable to the two it reminded me of.

Now back on Earth we broke out Decrypto and separated into teams, with myself and Martin versus the other three. Last time I'd played Decrypto I'd felt my clues were too obvious, but in this first game things went too far the other way, with both Martin and I bamboozling each other with our clues for detective. I suggested 'panther' (pink panther!) and Martin 'baker' (Baker Street!). We shot ourselves in the foot, with Martin at one point wailing "We're going to lose!"
"Welcome to my world" I replied.

And we did.

Ian, Joe, Andy - don't screw up
Martin and Sam - do

We changed teams with Andy and I now making a pair, and Martin taking the opportunity to be scathing about his former teammate. This time my clues were more flippant, as I search for elusive, delicate balance of what works in this game. As a result, we were twice decrypted and lost - not helped either when Andy and I guessed correctly but had written the wrong numbers in.

Ian, Joe, Martin - Detectives
Andy and Sam - Defective

Like Montage, I am terrible at this game! But it's great fun. If I could clue myself, I might be onto something.

Next up with Mamma Mia, accompanied by the traditional argument over whether - as Martin asserts - it's Uwe Rosenberg's best game or not. Arle-lover Joe wasn't having it, but Martin was unsurprisingly immovable. Meantime Andy was trying to get the game after a brief explanation and reassurances from all of us that, once he'd played a round, he'd understand it. "Or once you've lost a round" I clarified. But we should have taken Andy's pizza-making abilities more seriously, as he concocted a - for Mamma Mia - huge score, mixing recipes with aplomb in every single round.

Conversely, I made a terrible error of not making my fifteen-ingredient Bombastic pizza when I had the chance. Everyone gasped at my audacity/stupidity, but to be honest it would have used up all my cards, and I just wanted to stay involved. As it was, though, all I did was facilitate Martin's pizza-making with a plethora of toppings to choose from. On the other side of the table to me, Ian kept dropping all his ingredients, possibly distracted by his Mamma Mia duties...

Andy 6
Joe 4
Martin 3
Sam 2
Ian 1

Andy's pizzas, after round two

Last game of the night was Kakerlaken Poker, long appreciated but little-seen in recent times. The game had two mini-death spirals, when Andy tried to get out of the spotlight by passing to everyone in turn, and when Joe repeatedly passed his cards to Martin, only for Martin to flip them over with open disdain to reveal the host's fabrications. Best bluff went to Andy, who passed Joe a card saying it's one of those "green aphid things" - looking for all the world like he was passing a card he didn't know the name of. Joe flipped it over, and it wasn't a green aphid thing after all. We nearly applauded.

The game played out like a Sergio Leone western, with the tension mounting as all of us had pairs and Andy hit a triplet of cockroaches. Joe tried to bluff him into a defeat, but Andy flipped the card revealing more fibbery - and as Joe had no more cards to pass, he lost!

Joe - Kakerlaked
Everyone else - wins!

Lots of fun, thanks everybody. Looking forward to doing better on Powerships next time...

Bacon doesn’t breed

Another week, another GNN. Martin hosted and, for much of the evening, he had a sleeping baby in a papoose around him. The early arrivals (Martin, Katy, Ben, Sam, Ian and myself) whiled away the time with a little conversation followed by some Kakerlaken Poker. At one point, it seemed like Katy vs. Sam as they targeted each other in a series of tit-for-tat exchanges.

Sam lost by trying to bluff with a cockroach, but was found out and the card was handed back to him, to go with his other two cockroaches.

At around half past seven, Adam and Anja arrived and we split into two groups of four. At the hard-working, industrious end of the table, they chose La Granja, the new flavour here at GNN.

At the light-hearted end of the table, Martin brought out his new purchase Imhotep. This is a simple game of loading up boats with your cubes which then get delivered (in order) to various areas of the board which score differently. In one area, each players’ cubes are stacked, and the player at the end with the highest stack wins points. Elsewhere, they are laid out along a grid and points are gained for having cubes next to each other.

Martin introduced it by saying that there was plenty of opportunity for screwage, but I think that most of the whole game is about stopping your opponents doing what they want. The only down side is by doing that, you have to postpone whatever your plans might be.

It’s a smart little game, and Martin was appalled that his last minute theft of the tallest tower bonus wasn’t enough to stop Katy from winning the inaugural game.

Katy 34
Martin 33
Ben 31
Andrew 24

At this point, La Granja was still only one third done. Sam had steered Anja and Adam through the rules, even to the point of explaining how two pigs would give you a third pig, but not if you turn one pig into bacon, because bacon doesn’t breed.

So we started another game with chunky wooden pieces: Origin. This is a game of evolving and expanding across the planet and picking up bonuses for hunting, crossing straits, for innovations and for achieving certain criteria as given to you on cards.

I wasn’t in the mood for a battle and Katy and Martin were in their finest rutting stag pomp, clashing antlers at every opportunity. I thought the game was okay. I’m surprised how well I did, having collected a handful of cards which didn’t help me during the game: imagine how surprised I was when I found that each unused card was worth a point!

Martin 59
Katy 41
Andrew 36
Ben 34

As La Granja still had one more round to go, we four filled in the time with a few rounds of Martin's original copy of Love Letter. Katy won the first, Martin won the second and Ben won the last. By now, the scores were in from La Granja, and Sam deftly avoided Explainer’s Curse for once.

Not enough to stop Adam from winning, though.

Adam 65
Sam 61
Ian 53
Anja 46

And so we were done. As we walked back to my car, we reflected on an evening where Adam, Martin and Katy all won. I suggested we hadn’t needed to come out at all – we could’ve just stayed in and guessed that would happen.

Sam also told us about how, during the time when he was describing the rules, he suddenly realised he was sweating. Maybe he was afraid he’d suggested a game too far. Also, there is always the fear when describing the rules of a game to newbies that they will stop you mid-sentence and say “Are you kidding me? How is this fun?”

But they all seemed to enjoy it.

Dead Men Don't Bluff

Tuesday night is, as usual, games night. Arriving at Joes at 7.45, we broke up the gender politics discussion Katy, Joe and his family were having and set down to the serious business of balancing cards on a tripod.

There were five of us to start; me (Ian), Joe, Martin, Katy and Ben. Librium's second appearance at Games Night lasted slightly longer than the first play. We got through the entire deck, at which point we had to start removing cards from the structure. There was some discussion about the aesthetics of the game; I personally quite like it but I can't deny it does look like a corporate desk toy.

During Libirum Andy arrived, but he didn't have to wait around too long before the game wrapped up. I can't recall if we agreed this was leader board or not, but for posterity the results were:

Librium

1st. Ian

2nd. Joe

3rd. Katy

4th. Martin

5th. Ben

There was a brief discussion about whether we should split into two groups of three, but we decided to stick to one large group. Andy had boughtColt Express and several people seemed keen, so we assembled the cardboard train and cacti and, after Andy explained the rules to Joe, we were off.

As usual, it was a chaotic, delightful play. Andy went for an aggressive shooting strategy, seeming to not pick up any loot for much of the game. Joe and I raced to the front of the train to try and claim the suitcase after the guard had deserted his post.  Despite Ben having no loot and being stuck at the back of the train due to repeatedly being knocked back by a series of punches, the guard seemed to be making an inexorable bee-line for him.

It was Joe who claimed the suitcase, but it wasn't quite enough to earn second place. Andy's trigger-happy approach won him the game:

Colt Express

1st. Andy  $2200

2nd. Ian  $1800

3rd. Joe  $1750

4th. Martin  $1650

5th. Katy  $1250

6th. Ben  $250

Interesting to note that Colt Express was the first game this evening where Katy felt compelled to describe the turn of events as "a crock of shit". The second game to provoke this reaction was For Sale.

For Sale has seen a bit of action recently, Joe's new copy having been played for three weeks in a row now. There was a particularly interesting auction where the houses were split between three very lower cards (2, 3, 4) and three reasonably high cards (21, 23, 25). Who was going to crack first and take the lower cards?

Like last week we ended up playing two games of For Sale.

For Sale

1st. Martin  $50k

Joint 2nd. Ian and Joe  $45k

3rd. Katy  $43k

4th. Andy $42k

5th. Ben $34k

1st. Katy  $49k

2nd. Ian  $48k

3rd. Martin $46k

4th. Andy $37k

5th. Ben $38k

6th. Joe $36k

Dead Man's Chest was next. The hidden-dice rolling and bluffing game hasn't been seen since early March, and it's  absence has been a slight mystery as it proved to be highly entertaining.

After clarifying  the rules regarding a "Dead Man" (when the dice show a 21), Joe started proceedings by calling Dead Man on the very first roll of the game. Surely it was some kind of audacious bluff? Katy seemed to think so and called him out on it. It was indeed a Dead Man. 

Martin seemed to be constantly rolling doubles, at one point claiming the dice were showing 33. I called him out. They were showing  44, losing me a gem. There was a lot of bluffing and a lot of cracking up; icy-faced poker-bluffing this was not. Joe called Dead Man at least three more times. One by one we dropped out until it was down to Martin and Joe, both with a single gem left. The tension was palpable, akin to the Russian roulette scene in The Deer Hunter. Only with a tiny box of dice instead of guns.

This tense situation couldn't last long though, and Martin emerged victorious.

Dead Man's Chest

1st. Martin

2nd. Joe

3rd. Ben

4th. Katy

5th. Ian

6th. Andy

What better way to follow one bluffing game than with another? Kakerlakenpoker was dealt out, and we were off.

Martin seemed to go into an early death spiral, ending up with two cockroaches, two scorpions and a toad. But Martin held on admirbaly, correctly calling out other people's bluffs and playing a war of attrition as other people slowly collected cards of their own. Katy seemed to be entering a death spiral of her own, but ultimately Martin couldn't keep from collecting the third card of a set.

Kakerlakenpoker

Martin loses

With time for one more game, Katy and Martin bought out their Push It sets and we prepared for some co-operative battles.

Katy and I took and early lead, being five points towards the winning seven. Unfortunately, I was on Katy's team and I knocked the Jack off the table, knocking us down to three points. The scores remained fairly even from that point; several of us seemed to veer between accurate and fluffed shots. Somehow Katy and I clawed our way back up to six points, closely followed by Joe and Martin on five and Andy and Ben on four. The Jack ended up coming to rest very near me, allowing me to slide my puck next to it for a safe win.

Push It

1st. Katy and Ian  7 points

2nd. Joe and Martin  5 points

3rd. Andy and Ben  4 points

And with that, it was time to flee into the night. Thanks to Joe for hosting and everyone else!

The Sheriff of Not-my-hand

With seven days of gaming in the past three weeks, I admit I was feeling a little gamed out . But curiosity about Chris’ new house persuaded me to indulge in an eighth as he offered to host a rip-roaring late-nighter with the old London crew. While Paul made his own way there, Sam and I drove up, and once again we found ourselves on a dark, rainy motorway, looking for games.

After a brief tour of Chris’ new home the four of us sat down for some games. We began with Pairs. With only a few players, choosing to stick is more tactical since there are fewer points to win per round. Sam kept us amused with his exciting descriptions of our demise (”Crushed by blueberries!” “Graped out!”) and Chris cursed himself by saying how exciting it was just before dealing himself a pair and crashing out of the round. I missed my chance to win, since I felt I needed to stay in as long as Paul did but I went bust. Paul romped home.

First game, and one bag of crisps already demolished

Paul 23
Andrew 20
Sam 17
Chris 10

Then we chose Sheriff of Nottingham, a game of bluff and a little bit of set collecting. Each player takes it in turn to be the sheriff, and the other players put cards depicting goods that they want to take to market in a pouch and hand it over to the sheriff. They then tell the sheriff what’s inside (“three apples” or “two chickens”) but you don’t have to tell the truth. The only thing you must be honest about is the number of cards.

I forgot to take a picture of the game itself,

but here's the player mat.

This means you can hopefully slip by some contraband in the shape of crossbows or silk or (gasp) rye bread. The sheriff can chose to either look inside your pouch or let you past unchecked. If the sheriff catches you with them, then they are confiscated. If the sheriff opens your pouch but you were telling the truth, they have to pay a penalty. Finally, a player can bribe the sheriff to leave their pouch unopened or to open someone else's.

Chris had played before, but it was new to the rest of us. It was fun, even if I was never sure if I was paying the right amount to bribe. I enjoyed accusing people of being bare-faced liars. Sam went for mostly contraband, which gets lots of points per card, but no bonus points at the end for most of a particular good. Chris had bonus points coming out of his ears and won comfortably.

Chris 167
Andrew 130
Paul 125
Sam 115

Next up was Quantum. This was our sort of Eclipse substitute, since it was far too late to start that. I took an early lead, while Paul went big on research, getting a card that boosted his research and then going for cards in a big way. At one point he picked up a card “Scrappy” to which Sam asked “What’s ‘Scrappy’ do?” How we laughed at Sam’s inadvertent reference to children’s TV.

Brilliant, cruel and intelligent. That's Paul.

Sam took the lead mid-game, and stayed there, with Paul missing a chance to screw Sam with a Relocation card. Oh well. It was a new game to him. Chris was distracted by having to clean up bits of worms and grubs that his cats kept bringing in.

Sam closed the game swiftly, boosting his dominance by sacrificing his research and he got his last cube down long before any of us had a chance to challenge him.

Sam 0 cubes left
Andrew 2
Paul 2
Chris 3

There then followed a few rousing rounds of Kakerlaken Poker. More bluffing and lying as we try to pass off insect to each other, and the first to three of the same loses. Paul was told the rules and lost so quickly that we called the first game a test run. Then Sam went out early in the next round, trying to get rid of a scorpion from his hand when he already had two showing in front of him. The rest of us had two cards.

Then there was a slightly longer round, that ended with me going out on stinkbugs thanks to Chris. Paul and Sam had three cards showing (so they sort of won) and Chris had four.

Then we played 6nimmt. Oh, 6nimmt, will you ever be kind to us? As everyone dashed to get rid of their highest cards, so the rows quickly filled up. Cue groans of pessimism all round. And after all that, Sam and I rejoiced in our joint victory.

Andrew 39
Sam 39
Chris 50
Paul 79

After that Sam went to the toilet and came back with a big smile and a copy of Perudo. Chris’ new house really is a marvel. And so am I at Perudo, it seems.

In the first game, Sam went out playing a round without looking at his die. He explained that he had had four beers by now. Apart from that, highlight of game one was went Chris and I faced off with two dice each. He said “one three” I said “one four”. He then said “one five” and I said “one six.” At that point we both realised what dice we had: 3 and 5 for Chris and 4 and 6 for me. I won that round.

1. Andrew
2. Chris
3. Sam
4. Paul

Then we had one more go for old times’ sake. This time it was me and Sam as last men standing, with four dice each, but I then went on to win the next four rounds to end the game quickly.

1. Andrew
2. Sam
3. Paul
4. Chris

And then to bed.

Red Hot Chilli Popper

Games was at Joe's tonight, and as well as the host there was Andy Bates, Andy Morgan, Katy, Ian, Martin and myself (Sam). As Andy M was arriving later than the rest of us we kicked off with Kakerlakenpoker, the game of insect bluff. Andy (B) professed not to like it, and as we serially made correct rejections, the insects piled up fast.

Joe was best at spotting bluffs, and two (or three?) in a row from Andy amounted to Kakerlakensuicide, as he apparently deliberately torpedoed himself in order to end his misery. Following this drama, Martin refused to let me tot up the scores going by remaining cards, insisting "There's only one loser!" and pushing all the remainders into a pile. Whilst Joe, Katy and I protested Andy B backed him up, reading from the rule book. When have we ever paid attention to the rules at GNN?

Breathless stuff, and the evening was only starting. Martin - in bullish mood, it seemed - scoffed at Joe's suggestion of playing Scoville, the game of chilli farming, pronouncing it as "Kickstarter crap". Joe went ahead anyway, with Ian and Katy abetting him, whilst Martin, Andy and I used a deck of 6Nimmt cards to play The Game, which was a co-operative effort to get all the cards out in a series of rows - two ascending and two descending. Very like Hanabi, in fact, except this time you can see your own cards and cannot share information. You can however ask people to leave a row alone for your next turn, and also play a card that takes a row ten spaces backward if it is ten places 'behind' the current number. Andy M walked in just in time to see us get a perfect score.

The four of us elected to play Basari. This was new to me, but I must admit I liked it a lot - getting distracted enough not to take a photo. I liked  it most of all when I sailed into what I naively thought was an impregnable lead, only to be pegged back by Andy M as my card choices in the last round were kakerlakencacken:

Andy M 62
Sam 60
Martin 59
Andy B 45

With the other three gamers poised over their embryonic chillies, we moved swiftly on to Abluxxen and I got some really shitty hands with loads of singles. I probably could have played them better but in the wide world of games, I was never anywhere near Martin, who sailed to victory (despite scoring negative points at one stage!) after trouncing us all in the opening round:

Martin 47
Andy B 39
Andy M 37
Sam 33

By now Scoville had finally come to an end, with Joe refusing to admit that it was Kickstarter crap, but we could see from the look on his face that he was lying. As Ian admitted later in the car "I nearly liked it". Katy went further and said she did like it, but she didn't seem that convincing, considering the scores:

Katy 93
Ian 70
Joe 65

There was a reference card in the game that reminded me of the indecipherable Developments and Wonders in Olympos, where most of the game was spent checking the rulebook to establish what they did.

We were now all in one group again, so although Andy M retired to his adjacent house, there was plenty of time for a game of 6Nimmt, which Katy insisted upon. I was sure I could remember her swearing at the game like a docker at an art student, but apparently she likes it. Who knew?

Well we'll remember next time, as she sailed serenely to a convincing win as the rest of us swore like a bunch of dockers at a cafeteria sit-in over bursaries. Ian's recent good form returned to it's disastrous early days, and Andy pretty much replicated it:

Katy 29
Sam 47
Joe 59
Martin 66
Andy B 80
Ian 81

A nice bunch of games - with the possible exception of Scoville; more in the comments I hope - and plenty of time to get lost in Easton on the way home. See you Friday!

It's only Rockleycon but I like it

Friday

Andrew and I (Sam) arrived at Rockley cottage in mid-Somerset first, and sniffed around the place finding it to our liking. Talking later with Chris and Paul, we realised we’ve been doing these weekends away almost every year since before the Millennium. Once upon a time we camped and played cards, but when Chris stumbled on Settlers and El Grande, there was a sea change toward a place with a roof and a table. This year we found ourselves in the village of Edington, and after pondering the finality and intractability of the passage of time, we broke out Castles of Mad King Ludwig and started building rooms.

Chris and Paul were new to this game of haphazard construction but picked up the rules very quickly – it’s such an intuitive game. Paul was last to be Master Builder, but shrugging off this economic hobbling and swiftly began accruing a shedload of money. He sped off up the scoretrack, never to be caught, though Andrew gave it a decent go. Chris was sidetracked by a bonus card for getting all types of rooms, a bit of a red herring bonus if his (and previous) experiences are anything to go by.

Paul 123
Andrew 109
Sam 97
Chris 89

After all that building we were pretty hungry. I started making a chorizo stew whilst the other three played the longest game of Red7 in the history of games of Red7. I cooked stew and rice and we ate it as the game went on hold.

They continued afterwards, promising the game was nearly over for several rounds whilst I entertained myself – and occasionally the others – playing Sausage and Mash with Agatha Christie.

Eventually Chris ended the game with his first victory of the weekend:

Chris 44
Paul 31
Andrew 29

Keyflower was next on the menu. This Chris’ current favourite and he was keen to show it off to Andrew and I, having played it in Bracknell and Reading Boardgame Social. He’s explained it better elsewhere on the blog, but essentially each player is building a village by bidding for hexagons to add to their existing settlement.

However as well as using meeples to bid for the card, you can also elect not to bid on your turn but to use the action on the hexagon instead. The winning bidder gets to keep all the meeples that have used that hexagon’s action, and it’s this delicate balance of getting stuff versus losing meeples at the game’s heart. It’s also a multiple-paths-to-victory game, and a bit of a head-scratcher. There’s plenty to mull over, but we played it with reasonable pace and I pulled off a surprise debut win:

Sam 64
Chris 63
Andrew 60
Paul 56

Next up was Take It Easy. Everyone loves this game for its thematic possibilities that have evolved from our original rhyming-couplets convention, combined with its ability to drive you crazy. Paul began with an unbeatable calling theme of James Bond gadgets, which he sustained brilliantly over the 21 tiles placed. Andrew followed this with a wistful take on things he missed from his childhood, and I did animated characters. I can’t remember what Chris’ one was. The scores felt almost secondary, but it was Chris again with a convincing win:

Chris 649
Sam 587
Andrew 583
Paul 550

By now it was nearly ten and we’d been playing (or learning rules) for the last six hours. When I suggested Alien Frontiers I didn’t expect two newbies to bite, but Paul and Chris were keen – or at least amenable. Rules-wise it’s pretty simple next to something like Keyflower though, so going through the rules only took ten minutes and we were away. I can’t remember much about it to be honest – toward the end my eyes were starting to feel a bit furry but with some luck from the dice I did enough to pull off a win:

Sam 9
Andrew 7
Chris 6
Paul 4

I was ready for bed, but those crazy guys tempted me to stay up for one last game: Kakerlaken Poker. I think everyone has played this by now and there are fairly diverse opinions on it. I think it’s great, personally, though I usually do really badly. Maybe something about my sleepy state made me more aware of when Andrew was lying.

Sam: Fewest cards
Paul: No pairs
Chris: One pair
Andrew: Loser with three of a kind!

A very enjoyable start to the weekend came to an end and we reeled off into bed. I recall it being funny anyway. It’s Saturday now and my main recollection is thinking “Shit, I hope Chris doesn’t bid on that hexagon for making gold” in Keyflower. But the others assure me it wasn’t all like that.


Saturday

Andrew here. The day began with Sam and I driving through the rain (perfect weather for board games) to the neighbouring village Bratton in a hopeful search for real coffee. In fact, they did stock it and Sam came out of the shop with a packet of filter coffee and freshly baked croissants, ruefully saying “Village shops aren’t the same as they used to be.”

Once we were back, we struggled with the cryptic crossword. Paul rose from his bed and we decided that the best way to get Chris to join us was if he heard the noise of happy gamers vigourously enjoying themselves. However, the best we could come up with this early was That’s Life.

Andrew 26
Sam 18
Paul 1

It was Paul’s first game, which goes some way to explain his score. Our plan worked, though, and Chris came down halfway through the game. Once a coffee was put down in front of him he was persuaded to join us in another game of That’s Life.

Andrew 24
Sam 17
Paul 13
Chris 12

After this, we cleared the table for the first of our big epic games of the day: Colonial. A huge epic of a game, taking in a vast swathe of history that lasts centuries. And that’s just reading the rules!

Ho ho.

Sam talked us through the rules, and we looked perplexed and puzzled. There were rebellions and war, diplomacy, and even the chance to abolish slavery. And that was just while reading the rules! (Oh, that joke never gets old)

But seriously, we decided to play a shortened version (up to eight prestige points instead of ten) but we explored as much of the game's options as possible. Sam got hit by a rebellion (thanks to me) and a war (thanks to Paul) but, thanks to never having got into debt, Sam was able to end the game the moment he got eight prestige points.

Sam 8
Andrew 6 and some debt
Chris 6 and more debt
Paul 4

But it was very much a training game. Paul deliberately did odd things, just to see what happened, and Chris deliberately had terrible luck when rolling dice just to entertain us. In fact, his fortune with the dice was so bad that when he finally succeeded in exploring Australia we all applauded.

It was a good game. At least I enjoyed it but then, I do like a game with a bit of a narrative to it. It felt weighty, with its nicely illustrated map and its themes of empires rising and falling. Not sure when we’ll get the chance to play it again, though. It certainly needs some sort of player guide, too.

Then we had lunch of sliced meats, cheeses, potato omelette, burningly hot quiche and dips. This was all to get us in the mood for Amerigo, another epic to stretch us to our limits.

It was new to Paul and Chris, and neither Sam nor I had played in a while so the game was dotted with confusion of the rules. I can’t honestly say it was a madcap bag of laughs, except when someone put a healthy handful of cubes into the top of the tower and only three dribbled out of the end. This happened more than once. Oh, how we laughed.

I exploited a new scoring rule that Sam and I were previously unaware of, scoring well for settlements on completed islands. It was enough to nab me the win.

Andrew 211
Sam 185
Chris 172
Paul 168

Then we went for a walk down to the local farm shop where I bought some local micro-brewed beer (as if we didn’t have enough alcohol already) and then we set off for a brief walk through some of Edington’s finest footpaths.

As we wandered past farms, we imaged the knowledgeable conversations we could have with the farmers thanks to our expertise in Agricola.

“You know, if you fence that field in, you could keep twice as many horses in there.” And “I see you’ve got a stone farmhouse. What other improvement did you get when you built that?”

Then, as it was threatening to rain again, we returned to the cottage, took turns having showers and our next game was another AP-laden Eurogame: Castles of Burgundy. In my notes for this evening, I wrote that CoB is “the fun game of having a plan and then forgetting it by the time it gets to your turn.” Sam went crazy on bonuses for shipping, and got a comfortable win. I came last, behind two newcomers to the game.

Sam 199
Chris 184
Paul 165
Andrew 163

After an excellent curry made by Chris, we decided to play something that was a bit more fun: Incan Gold! Chris was the big winner here, staying on in the first temple by himself, and getting a 9, an 11 and a 17 all to himself. A just reward for his cooking skills.

Chris 68
Andrew 54
Sam 31
Paul 6

By now, the cryptic crossword had bothered Sam and I so much that we even texted Joe, who kindly lend a hand to a particularly annoying clue. As for the games, we chose Raj as a similarly light yet tense way to pass the time. Sam won the first two rounds, but after Chris commented on how well Sam was doing, his game collapsed and he fell back into third.

Andrew 58
Chris 47
Sam 39
Paul 33

Following this, we chose 7 Wonders. A perennial favourite that we’ll still be playing in the old person’s home where we will surely end up. I went for sciences, but it wasn’t enough to beat Chris’ smorgasbord of decent scores across many categories.

Chris 61
Andrew 55
Sam 52
Paul 44

The evening was progressing nicely. We had no appetite for a big game, so we ploughed on with more simple yet tortuous games. No Thanks was given a couple of turns.

Andrew 16
Sam 32
Paul 39
Chris 75

Sam 23
Andrew 32
Paul 48
Chris 63

And then Kakerlaken Poker was dragged out again, with Paul trying to pass off most of his cards with the joyous cry of “It’s a kakerlaken!” It didn’t work.

Sam 1 pair
Andrew 2 pairs
Chris 3 pairs
Paul 4 of a kind

At five to ten Paul had a hankering for a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and since our bedtimes were flexible, we were amenable. I got shitty bonuses, made all the more annoying by me throwing away a bonus card that scored money and I ended with over 50,000 marks.

Sam 120
Paul 102
Andrew 98
Chris 85

And we ended with Timeline, the general interest edition. I can’t remember much about this at all.

Paul 0 cards left
Chris 0 cards left
Andrew 1 card left
Sam 1 card left

Finally we went to bed. Just as I was putting my head down, I got a text! Sam had just realised an answer on the cryptic crossword.


Sunday

Early morning, while listening to an old pirate radio broadcast I’d found on the internet, Chris and I played Biblios. It was close, and I entered the auction round with barely any money at all. I managed to win, though, thanks to Chris not pushing me on an auction for an “adjust two dice down” card. If he’d taken it instead of me, the result would have been very different and I’d be alive today.

Andrew 8
Chris 5

Sam and Paul came down from upstairs, and they blearily looked at the quiz in yesterday’s Guardian, unable to face the cryptic again. Instead we went for a light breakfast followed by a light-to-medium game of Istanbul. My recent form on this game has been nothing short of shocking, but when I got a “Use Sultan's Palace twice” bonus card my strategy was already decided for me, and it worked.

Andrew 5
Sam 4
Paul 3 + cash
Chris 3

With time pressing, we finished what was left in the fridge while playing Tsuro. And what an exciting game it was as we all ducked and weaved, trying to find a quiet corner to see out the game while the other players pick each other off. Paul and I were face to face on one square. I couldn't kill him and survive, so I put down a tile that sent us both around the board... to the same square somewhere else! Amazing scenes. But then we were stuck and both died on Paul's next turn, leaving Sam alone on the board.

1. Sam
2= Paul
2= Andrew
3. Chris

Our last game was Verflixxt! Or That's Life. We played it through twice using all the tiles. The first game ended as

Sam 31
Andrew 15
Paul 6
Chris 2

Then in the second game, Paul requested that all the clovers be right at the end. So we put the guards on the largest minus numbers instead of on the guards (otherwise it would have been impossible to play). Chris quickly sped off, hoping to get to the clover tiles first. It looked like a good idea at first, but he couldn't quite get enough clovers to make it work.

Paul 20
Andrew 13
Sam 12
Chris -8

And with that, games were packed away and cars were loaded up.

Chris departed for home and while Paul was having a shower, Sam and I tried a lightning fast game of Trivial Pursuit (house rule: roll two dice, may move either value or the combined value) and Sam was winning six cheeses to four when Paul came down and it was time to end the weekend once and for all.

Good show, chaps. A great occasion. I'm already looking forward to the next.