Made of Orleans

Six gamers, one kitchen table. The gamers were Ian, Katy, Sam, Andy, Martin and me and the table belonged to Sam.

We began with a jolly six-handed game of Fuji Flush. In amongst all of the excitement about dick points (with Martin starting the game with a big swinging dick point, clearing five two-cards with an eleven) I snuck into a winning position and was down to my last card before anyone noticed. But then Martin noticed and after that, people seemed reluctant to join me. Luckily, when Sam got down to his final card, he put down a seven to make a fourteen with another seven already showing, and then I put down my seven. We pushed through together, and rejoiced in our shared victory

Andrew 0
Sam 0
Martin 1
Ian 1
Andy 2
Katy 2

After this, we split into two groups. Sam bundled Ian and I into a game of Orleans. Martin, Andy, and Katy spent a little time before deciding on Vikings.

Ian and I got a run through of the rules which are straightforward if a little fiddly with a lot going on with each turn. As I played, I started to get a feel for how to best manage my luck, while going for the, perhaps simplistic, strategy of Get Stuff.

Sam built Guildhalls as he hopped across the board while Ian ignored the map completely at first, preferring to build up his presence on the range of tracks that gave out little bonuses as you did. At one point, he was in first place in four out of six, and generating large amounts of money while also monopolizing cheese.

On Vikings, Katy was having a difficult time of it. Although she'd played before, it was a long time ago and up against two seasoned professionals like Martin and Andy, she was struggling. Martin reassured her that she was doing fine, but Katy wasn't convinced. And during the final count up, she made sure I noticed when she briefly edged into second place, before Martin and Andy sped off into the distance once more.

Andy 88
Martin 81
Katy 62

Back in Orleans, Ian's initial advantage was slowly being pegged back by Sam. Ian and I started building Guildhalls, and we even began populating the Town Hall.

On the other half of the table, Vikings had been replaced by Karuba. This Take-It-Easy-ish game of pathfinding is usually a big hit but Katy, stymied by Explainer's Curse, didn't seem to enjoy it as much as usual.

Martin 23
Andy 22
Katy 20

As Karuba ended, so we came to the end of Orleans. And what an ending. At first, once the scores had been counted, Ian had won. But, as we were packing away, Ian pointed to a lone citizen (a multiplier for an end-game bonus) on the board and asked what it was there for. Sam then realized that it should have gone to him (as the player with most Guildhalls) which would put him in first.

What to do? Does the original score stand or does Sam take the win? In the end, Sam remembered that he'd not explained this particular rule, and so he couldn't very well invoke it now. The initial tally would stand, with Ian taking first place.

Ian 125
Sam 123
Andrew 95

Now we were all back together so we decided to play 6nimmt as our nightcap. After two games against tough opposition, Katy seemed keen on a familiar game to level the playing field. However, before long, her enthusiasm waned as we embarked on a very tough game of 6nimmt. One impossible situation after another kept cropping up. In desperation, at one point, I went Dirk and was delighted when it came off and Martin had to pick up a row!

In the end, fully fifty percent of the players ended up past the losing score of 66.

Sam 22
Ian 46
Katy 62
Andy 67
Andrew 68
Martin 72

Which leaves us with the Division. This week, I've taken the points score and changed it so that zero points is 1066 and the leader's score is 2017. That way, everyone is represented by an historical event.

Christmascon!

Yes, it's the GNN celebration that sounds vaguely punitive.

The day began at my (Sam's house) relatively early: 10am to be precise, when Stanley's friend and Stanley's friend's dad arrived to play Scythe. This is not exactly a gateway game for 9-year-olds, but Stan was keen and everyone else was amenable. All the bits and pieces make it look pretty exciting too - mechs! eagles! planks of wood! We went on slightly longer than planned, but did finish the game. Stan looked like he had things sewn up when he went for a sod-popularity route, ignoring public opinion to bash down his stars as quickly as possible. But two fights went against him when he guessed that opponents would play low, and they didn't. Instead, competitive dad (me) beat him into second place.

As the newbies departed still looking reasonably sane, we chucked some egg sandwiches down our throats and prepared for the arrival of the GNN masses. Just like Field of Dreams, if you clear the table, they will come. First in was Big Joe, who had brought Captain Sonar! Then there was a flurry of gamers; Ben, Matt, and Hannah. Talk began of playing Captain Sonar, but the first game out of the box was Tumbling' Dice. Joe allowed Ben, Matt and Stanley a warm-up, which they all took with impressive unity:

While they then embarked on a tumbling' tussle, Hannah and I had a couple of games of Hounded. This was a birthday present to Stan and I really enjoy it: it's a two-player where one side simply has to avoid capture (the fox) and the other has to somehow surround the very manoeuvrable fox and trap it. I caught Hannah as the hunter then we swapped sides. Hannah discovered that the hunter's side requires a bit more thought, as opposed to the fox who simply gambols about, giving two fingers to the various dogs unable to catch him. The second game went on for a while, but eventually I had to gamble on flipping the final time tile (all three flipped wins the fox the game)  and I gambled wrong. Hannah had me cornered and closed in for the kill.

By the time that had ended, Tumbling' Dice had too, with Stan claiming a convincing debut win:

Stan 132
Joe 78
Ben 60
Matt 50

And the same gang had also managed to bash out a game of Mamma Mia:

Ben 5
Matt 5
Joe 3
Adam 3
Stan 3

And Adam and Arthur had also arrived. They were followed by Katy, and then Jon, as the house began to fill up! With nine of us now present, but one person required to keep Arthur company, the time had finally arrived: Captain Sonar! I almost expected Joe to pull off his normal clothes and reveal a special CS vest underneath. But he didn't. He set up and went through the rules, then we had a few moments to digest them as Chris, Jacquie, Ashton and Ava-Rose paid us a flying visit, generously dropping off a birthday present for Stan en route home. We had a flying catch-up, then it was down to the business of trying to kill each other.

Katy and Hannah took the role of opposing captains whilst Jon and Joe the engineers. Ben and Matt were first mates and Stanley and I the radiographers. Or something. Our job was to record what the opposing captains said, whilst our own dictated the direction we took. The Engineer kept track of various systems and told the Captain when she could fire a torpedo or drop a mine. And the first mate did something else, which I never totally picked up on.

I enjoyed being the guy-who-listens; it seemed less stressful to me than what the others were going through, which was a lot of people talking at the same time. As long as I listened to Hannah I could ignore pretty much everything else. We located their sub and blew them up for the win.

Then we changed teams and Stanley was now captain along with myself, Joe and Jon. Hannah stepped out so Adam could play along with Ben, Katy and Matt. This time the game was short and sharp - they located us and scored two direct hits before we even knew where they were!

Their followed a break for pizza, during which time Andrew arrived from work. The world was now our oyster with everyone present...

(screen goes wobbly signifying change of narrator)

When I arrived, the table was groaning under the weight of co-op pizzas and chip shop chips. Anja and Steve and Luther were there are the table too. During the meal, Stanley tried to drum up support for a third game of Captain Sonar, but to little success. Instead we split into two groups. Joe persuaded four to join him in a game of Adrenalin, winning people over by calling it “super fun”.

The rest of us went for Jamaica, but just before we began, Steve was called away so the rest of us played a game of Micro Robots on top of the game of Jamaica that was already set up to play. Decadence!

Stanley 5
Sam 3
Andrew 1
Jon 1

Then when we were ready to play Stanley was distracted by the lure of Seinfeld, no, Star Wars, no, PS3, so he set up camp in the front room for the rest of the evening.

Jamaica was fun, although both Jon and Steve were undone by a misunderstanding of the rules. Steve repeatedly so. For the most part, Steve sailed around the starting line, picking up gold. Unfortunately he hen tried moving, couldn’t pay for his space and ended up visiting the same “pay 5 gold” space twice.

Jon’s mistake was to take me on in battle, not knowing that I could decide how many cannons to use after he’d attacked and then he was surprised to discover that defenders could take from attackers if they won. But, as we explained, “that’s piracy for you!”

Meanwhile, everyone was else seemed to be very good at landing on treasures while I had none. And no money. My only hope was to end the game before anyone had a chance to amass a fortune, so I sped off to the finishing line and ended the game.

Andrew 13
Sam 9
Steve 6
Jon –8

Meanwhile, Adrenalin was apparently a board game version of a first person shooter. Adam found himself picked on (I can’t imagine why) and Matt impressed everyone with a move near the end of the game: he dragged Joe from apparent safety into range and then leapt into a neighbouring room, grabbed a flamethrower and used it to deal damage to everyone else on the board. Katy won by killing Adam.

Adrenalin, just before Matt causes havoc

Katy 40
Joe 38
Matt 37
Ben 24
Adam 21

Adam takes out his frustration on a 

chocolate Santa

Ben said that he was bad at real (ie, videogame, not REAL real) first-person shooters and he wasn’t surprised to learn he was bad at board-game versions too. He also said that he should be getting back since his girlfriend had only just got back from abroad. We said he should invite her along. He explained he already had. We dropped the subject.

Since we had all ended at the same time, there was a quick reshuffling of groups and the new line-ups looked like: Jon, Steve, Hannah and Katy played Broom Service and me, Sam, Anja, Joe and Matt chose Fool’s Gold.

Joe impressed us all with a high-quality dice-cup. Tall and lithe, it was a million miles away from Stone Age’s stinky receptacle. But, being so tall, it’s distribution of dice was too wide across the table and Joe put it away saying it needed a dice tray.

Joe's new dice cup

In the game, people kept getting in my way, especially Joe who ruined the mountain twice for me (and him, too) by drawing a Foul Weather card when we only had two cards to draw in the first place.

The other feature of the game was how often our player shields fell down. Whenever they did, I found it very entertaining to say “hellooo!”

Sam 30
Joe 23
Matt 21
Andrew 19
Anja 18

Once we’d finished, there was another reshuffle. Broom Service showed no sign of ending so we played a quick game of For Sale.

Doesn't look like a winning hand to me.

I was right.

Adam 59
Joe 51
Matt 49
Anja 49
Andrew 43

Finally Broom Service ended...

Jon 80
Katy 71
Hannah 65
Steve 58

... and we divided up again. Anja was keen on a big game, and so she, I and Adam got out Viticulture. Since I was now in the front room, away from the bustle of the kitchen, my notes get a bit confusing here, but I think there was a game of Junk Art at this time.

Matt 12
Sam 12
Joe 4

Then, just before we got going on Viticulture, we all got together for the GNN Quiz of the Year, hosted by Sam. There were categories like “games designers” and “player performances” (I think) which tested our knowledge of games in general and also events of 2016 at GNN towers.

With the most regular attendees me, Katy and Joe, nominated as captains, we split into three teams and it ended very close.

Katy, Steve, Adam 20
Andrew, Jon, Hannah 20
Joe, Anja, Matt 19

After this, it was 10.15 and we had to get cracking on Viticulture. In the main room, Katy took up photography duties so we have evidence of a game of Super Vampires...

Sam 9
Steve 7
Hannah 3

And Karuba...

Jon 23
Katy 20
Matt 19
Joe 19

As well as this mid-game shot of Viticulture.

Later, I went to check on progress in the kitchen and found a game of World’s Fair

Sam 76
Steve 70
Hannah 58

And a non-used half of the table, while people stood around talking!

Like... wut?

Sanity was restored in a short while with a game of Igloo Pop on one half of the table, and Escape From Aliens In Outer Space on the other half.

Igloo Pop

Sam 22
Hannah 10
Steve 10

The results of Escape From Aliens In Outer Space were, according to my notes:

Katy wins!!
Joe came second and went to get a Coke.
Matt died (by Katy)

Finally, Viticulture ended, thanks to Adam’s efficiency. I doubt it was on purpose, but he played a game using tactics that were the opposite of what we suggested to Anja. Adam said selling a field was a good idea, because you don’t need three fields. Then he used all three fields. I said it was a waste to sell grapes straight from the crush pads, and later Adam did just that. He’s so contrary, that boy.

The margin of victory was pretty immense and I only did as well as I did by using up all my point-scoring visitor cards once I saw that Adam was about to win. If the game had continued, I’d have been hard pushed to score any more points for ages. Anja came last, but said she enjoyed it. Adam really seemed to like it, though. Of course he did.

Adam 22
Andrew 13
Anja 9

And with that, the year was over. There’s no division for this evening and there won’t be the usual big end-of-year statistics run-down that I've done in the past, but there is the little matter of the division for 2016.

Well done Katy and Adam. Well done everyone. Big thanks to Sam for hosting and feeding us all. A marvelous end to a splendid year (GNN-wise, that is.) See you in 2017!

Welcome to Waspopolis

Birthdays. A special day for everyone, but mostly for the person celebrating their birth and for Katy who seems to take great delight in these things.

Since it was Adam’s birthday, he and Hannah had offered to host with the offer of a game of Railways of the World. This evening we were eight in number, which meant Katy did not have to play.

The eight of us split into two groups. Adam, Steve, Ian and I adjourned to the cooler room (cooler being relative – it was still pretty warm in this, the hottest GNN meet of the year) while Joe, Hannah, Katy and Martin (minus baby Effie) played outside on the patio.

While Adam et al set up RotW, the al fresco group began with slightly lighter fair: Imhotep. This Egyptian-themed game has a neat twist on the usual worker placement mechanic and the beating sun probably added to the realism. I expect.

Hannah wasn't able to play due to parental duties, but at the end Katy's 100% record had finally ended. She reported that it was a stupid mistake from her that gave Martin the win, but that she'd kept her whining down to a minimum.

Martin 45
Katy 36
Joe 33

After this, there was a brief pause as Adam was presented with his birthday cake. How nice.

Meanwhile, in RotW I had sped off into my usual mid-game lead, having nabbed the three-link bonus, and started shipping cubes up and down my network while the others were still shipping for one or two points. But I had a lot of bonds, and I felt I needed a bigger lead before I started to end the game.

Steve felt like he was lagging behind, a distant fourth. His position not helped by his reliance on “New Industry” cards to boost Boston, only to find he was an expert in pulling black and yellow cubes from the bag which is how Boston got the nickname “Waspopolis”.

In the other room, Imhotep had been replaced by the more sociable game of Team Play, with Martin and Katy putting aside their usual rivalry to join together against Joe and Hannah.

Katy & Martin 1
Joe & Hannah 1

Now it was time for Martin to go home, so Joe and Katy introduced Hannah to the joys of Karuba. This path-finding game has shades of Take It Easy since everyone takes the same tiles to place of their board. It was also like Take It Easy for provoking whoops of joy when a tile you need is chosen. Surprisingly, it was Hannah, not Katy, making the most noise.

Katy 19
Joe 18
Hannah 16

In the quieter half of the house, I was scrabbling around trying to end the game. My level five engine, once the envy of the Eastern US, was now obsolete with everyone else having trains of six of higher.

I managed to annoy Ian and Steve by triggering the end of the game on the last move of a turn, meaning their carefully laid plans wouldn't fully pay out. Adam, however, couldn't be stopped, and was able to build New York – Kansas City for a whopping twenty points. Steve was able to complete his baron (the only one of us who could) for a last-minute boost that got him into third ahead of Ian who had, until recently, been threatening me for second.

Adam 75
Andrew 57
Steve 55 (plus $42,000)
Ian 55 (plus $33, 000)

Surely this result made it the best birthday Adam's ever had. And, since it's his special day, here's a look at the division for Railways of the World (sorted by Points Ratio).

Meanwhile on the Division for this season, despite today's slip up, Katy maintains her form and with a lead like that she will probably still be top when she comes back from her trip away next week.

One for diamonds, two for gold

This week was a special date in the GNN calendar. it was a Katy's birthday. However, due to a nasty cold, it was not the happiest of birthdays. Perhaps, we hoped, some good company and better games would improve matters.

There were seven of us at Adam's: Adam, Ben, Andy, Ian, Katy, and myself with Joe expected along shortly. We tried to think of a nice group game we could all enjoy together, but without Martin or Sam or Joe, we were short of options. No Pairs, no Celestia, no Push It, barely anything. Only 6nimmt was available, and so we played that.

Since we were expecting Joe to arrive soon, we dealt in Dirk as a dummy hand that Joe could take over once he arrived. As you might expect from a random series of cards, Dirk veered from uncanny escapes to hopeless doom. But then again, so did the rest of us.

Midway through the second round, Martin arrived, all aglow with the joys of new fatherhood. He was only supposed to say hello, but with an unclaimed stack of cards on the table, he couldn't resist the invitation and took over Dirk's role for the rest of the game.

Andrew 21
Katy 36
Andy 36
Adam 42
Ian 47
Dirk 53
Ben 80

After this, Martin set off home and Joe arrived. He'd brought Birds of a Feather with him (the game, not a DVD box set of the sitcom) and since it played seven, he explained the rules and we all had a couple of games.

The game is very simple. From your hand of cards (with birds on), everyone plays one card into to centre. You, as a birdspotter, can see any birds that are in the same environment as the card you played. This means, you can tick off those birds on your scorepad. Then all these cards move into the centre, but stay face up, giving you the opportunity to spot birds that you missed with your next card (assuming you have the right environment in your hand).

It was fun and surprisingly thinky.

Andy 26
Joe 23
Katy 22
Andrew 22
Adam 22
Ben 20
Ian 15

In the next game we played an extra rule: the raptor rule. This means that when a raptor (a bird of prey) is played, all the birds from the previous round from the same environment are scared off (turned face down) and can't be spotted.

Andrew 29
Joe 25
Andy 24
Katy 23
Ian 19
Adam 16
Ben 12

A nice, relaxing game. Joe said that he wished he had some recordings of birdsong as a background. I have a feeling it's also meant to be educational, but I didn't look at the cards enough.

Then we split into two groups. Andy, Adam and Ian went the hard route, battling each other with tactics and pasties in that old favourite: Tinners' Trail.

We remaining four struck out into lighter territory with another new game from Joe: Karuba. He described it as a cross between Incan Gold and Take It Easy, and that's exactly what it was. Four meeples are placed along two sides of each players' playing area and four temple (of matching colours) are placed along the opposing two sides. Everyone starts with an identical set-up.

Then one player picks their tiles randomly, while the other players choose the same one from their supply and then play it on their area. The tiles have paths, and the idea is to get your meeples to their matching temples, picking up any gold (two points) and diamonds (one point) on the way.

We played twice and in game one, I did well. I put down to crossroad tiles in the middle of the board and they were very useful in ferrying my meeples to where they needed to be.

Andrew 23
Joe 20
Katy 19
Ben 14

So, in the second game, I tried the same tactic again, except the crossroad tiles didn't come out. In fact, hardly any junctions at all came out, and before long I was stuck, not wanting to put down tiles nor was I able to move my men.

Halfway through the second game, Katy's cold started a coughing fit and she had to retire for a few minutes. When she came back, we insisted that she rest her throat, so it was an uncommonly mute Katy who chose the tiles and held them up for us to see. This inconvenience didn't stop her from winning, just one point ahead of Ben.

Katy 22
Ben 21
Joe 17
Andrew 8

In the other room, Cornwall was still being plundered for its natural resources, so we played Castle Crush. It was new to Ben and I, but the rules are pretty straightforward: built a castle to protect your king and general from the cudgel of doom that topples from a circular platform onto your opponent's structure.

That's the theory, anyway. The two newbies began with contrasting fortunes. My first castle proved unexpectedly strong (I'm still not sure why). But on Ben's turn he tried to attack Katy's castle, only for the cudgel to bounce off harmlessly and it ended up hitting the side of his own castle and the king and general both popped out the other side.

But after that, Ben had better luck (or was it skill) and he quickly made up lost ground. Joe seemed think he was being picked on. Perhaps he was. Either way, his strong final round castle (withstanding two hits with barely a tremor) was not strong enough and Ben dealt the decisive blow.

Ben 75
Andrew 59
Katy 59
Joe 33

Tinners' Trail had ended by now, too. Adam had done enough to overturn Ian's high scoring first and third rounds.

Adam 137
Ian 125
Andy 108