Giving up the ghost

I write these blog posts on my phone and I like it when the predictive text on my phone suggests words for this report. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of another reality: in this case, a reality where Simon and Mary joined us for games night this week.

Tonight we were at Joe's and we were six in number: Joe, Martin, Ian, Sam, Adam and me. Sam was running a little late, and Martin made a pitch for Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game but the mood around the table wasn't amenable. Joe brought in a stack of options, with Welcome To Centerville hiding at the bottom. It caught Adam's eye and Martin's description of it as Yahtzee crossed with Sim City didn't put him off so we had to clarify that it had most of the Sim City bits taken out.

When Sam arrived, we still hadn't made a decision. He remarked on Centreville's presence on the table in a tone of voice that suggested he wouldn't be choosing it. Instead we went for a completely different style of game. Mysterium.

In this game of clue giving and deduction, Martin was the ghost. He couldn’t talk to us directly, but his mutterings about how shit his hand was told us that death hadn't changed him.

It's a hard game to describe but, as I recall, Martin The Ghost liked giving clues based on dominant colour, Sam was usually one step behind us in solving his clues and in the final round when we had to choose one scenario out of five, we got it completely wrong, despite spreading our choices across three of them. In fact we hadn't even discussed the correct option at all, much to Martin's annoyance. And, once he'd explained it, his clues did make perfect sense.

In the post-game wind down he also told us that we'd usually start off on the right track with our clues until Adam suggested something wrong.

Martin made another attempt at persuading some of us to play Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game, but with little success. Next up was another six player game: Team Play. Despite their lack of bonding over Mysterium, Adam and Martin paired up. The other teams were Joe & Sam and Ian & me.

It was a close game, and Sam played the eighth trick to trigger the final round. We were all very impressed when, after Joe had handed Sam two cards, Sam was able to complete his last trick (two pairs) with the last play of the game.

Sam & Joe 26
Ian & Andrew 23
Adam & Martin 22

It was still only 9.30 and we wondered what to do next. Sam asked if it was time for another discussion about Tigris and Euphrates The Card Game. Martin, Adam and I went for Azul. Joe went to get some roll and write games and discovered his dog had done plops on the floor again. Oh, Sybil.

They chose Kribbeln for their entertainment, and brought out the Das Exclusive dice arena to host it.

We played out a slow, thinky game of Azul. When tiles were pulled from the bag, there were almost no triples of the same colour on a tile for the whole game. Instead, we had to slowly put together our rows of four and five from the doubles and singles that were available. When Adam went to the toilet, I took the chance to watch some Kribbeln but I noticed Martin, deep in thought, scanning Azul and trying to find the optimum move. And it worked too, as he edged ahead in a close game.

Martin 63
Andrew 57
Adam 54

Kribbeln ended with Joe throwing caution to the wind, trying to catch the runaway leader Sam.

Sam 20
Joe 15
Ian 10

And they also squeezed in a game of Kriss Kross. This roll and write game has an air of Take It Easy about it, as point scoring opportunities are ruined by bad luck. Sam looked to have won it until he remembered a rule and demanded a recount. Such sportsmanship.

Joe 38
Sam 32
Ian 32

Now we were a sextet again, and there was some discussion about the next game. Vegas had been perched on top of a stack of games for the whole evening and I was keen, but instead we chose For Sale. Such a great game and it always throws up a surprise or two. As shuffled decks of cards so often do.

In this game, we had a round of all low cards, a round of all middling cards and a round of all high except one low card. Oh, and Joe picked up the 1 card. No surprises there. Sam’s win was all the more impressive since he picked up a $0 cheque in the second round. All his others were well into double figures.

Sam 51
Adam 50
Martin 45
Joe 38
Ian 36
Andrew 35

After this, Sam and Ian set off home and the remaining four of us pondered how to end the evening. Someone suggested Tichu and since we all knew the rules, we all agreed. The thought of starting a game Tichu at 10.30 was almost too exciting and GNN hasn't seen such decadence since that time we started Lords Of Vegas after nine o'clock.

It was, of course, a shortened game of just four hands. Martin and Adam overturned their previous poor form and ran into a 500 - 0 lead by the end of round two. Thankfully, Joe flexed his Tichu muscles and put us back into more respectable territory. He called Grand Tichu in round four because "why not?" and he made it too. Martin's failed bid of Tichu in that same round dragged them back towards us making the score look even better.

Martin and Adam 510
Joe and Andrew 390

And finally we were done. What an evening, and what a finale. Thanks all.

And so it gheos

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

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

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

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

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

Ian 70
Martin 69
Andrew 53

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

Stanley 31
Joe 19
Sam 15

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

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

Martin 10
Andrew - 1
Ian - 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ian 3
Martin 2
Joe 1
Sam 1
Andrew 0

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

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

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

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

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

Martin 11
Ian 10
Joe 10
Sam 10
Andrew 9

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

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

Andrew 29
Martin 28
Ian 26
Joe 25
Sam 25

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

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