The Three-tile Problem

 Absent for the past three weeks, I arrived at Joe's place at 7.20 but was not cordially invited down to the kitchen. Instead, he and Katy came out and we all got in Joe's car. We picked Sam up from his house and all of us drove across town to Steve and Anja's. Once we had finished catching up with each other’s news, we played a game called “count to 20” where we all have to, collectively, count up to 20 but not say the same number at the same time. We succeeded on our second attempt and Joe rewarded us all with tiny snacks hidden away in his car.

We arrived a little early, so we sat somewhat awkwardly in Joe’s car parked in Steve and Anja’s driveway. After a few minutes, we went inside and were greeted by Anja. We settled ourselves around the games table and, after a few minutes, Ian came in through the door that lead to the kitchen, as if he’d been there all along.

Steve was out with his son, so we began with Blob Party, a game which is like the opposite of Just One. A category is devised using two cards and then people have to think of the word that everyone else will think of. Before we began, Katy asked if the “blob” in Blob Party was a reference to periods. Was this the level of word association we’d have to deal with?

The gimmick in Blob Party is that there is a blob that is initially shared out equally among the players with a single plastic eye stuck on it. As players guess the same word, their blobs are conjoined, complete with eyes, to create a bigger blob. 

Sam and I bonded in round one and then Joe and Katy joined together in round two. Eventually, only Anja was alone. She seemed ambivalent about joining the hive mind, comparing it to the Borg, but she wrote Chelsea for “Flower Event” and so did we, and the game was complete.

Next up, now that Pete had arrived, we had another quick and silly game: Qork. In this game one player rolls two large dice under a cup. They lift the cup and if the result is a double or adds to seven, then they have to use the cup to trap as many corks as they can - each cork is tied to a string that, in turn, is being held by a player. These players have to yank their corks as quickly as they can to avoid being caught.

And that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.

Sam wondered aloud who had the quickest reactions, so I filmed one round in slow motion and can say (based on a single data point) that the order, from quickest to slowest, is: Pete, Sam, Katy and me (tie), Joe then Steve (Ian was the dice roller in that round).

It was fun. Pete pushed the laws of probability to extremes by (a) not rolling doubles or sevens for ages and then (b) rolling in such a way that the dice ended up on top of each other. Not to be outdone, Steve then needed several attempts at rolling in a way that both dice finish on the mat. Joe took what was a simple party game and added a dickish aspect. When he was dice-roller, he’d feint to catch corks even when it wasn’t needed, causing people to yank their corks without good reason and pick up a penalty point.

In the end, after all this, the scores were (less points are good)

Sam 3

Joe 5

Andrew 7

Pete 7

Katy 8

Steve 9

Ian 10

Now we decided to set up something more substantial. Joe had brought Lords of Vegas, so me, Katy, him and Ian set up to play. Steve, Pete and Sam set up Five Towers while waiting for Anja to finish domestic duties and watering the neighbours’ flowers.

I know little about Five Towers, except the scores

Steve 41

Sam 29 

Pete 20

Then they set up Hanami, Knizia’s reskinning of Samurai, so instead of a game about picking up tokens based on your strength in surrounding areas having a war-theme in Samurai Japan, we have a game with exactly the same aggressive mechanic with a theme about picnics during the blossom-viewing season in Japan. Anja joined them once she’d returned.

Pete won. I wasn’t told the scores except “it was a whitewash.”

As for Lords of Vegas, I started badly as my brilliantly lucky 2-tile silver casino was stolen by Katy who turned it into her 3-tile silver casino. A fantastic move, but it still quite annoyed me. However, Silvers didn’t pay out until the end of the game, by which time it was my 5-tile silver casino once more.

Katy, Ian and Joe constantly fought over a 3-tile casino in the corner of the board where they all had one die. But no matter how often Katy or Ian reorganised, Joe always won.

But Ian had a seemingly strong position at first, with a number of plots on the strip that he couldn’t afford to build on. But mid-game he had some actual buildings there when the Strip paid out and he became the richest player on the board. He used some of that money, though, on the third attempt at unseating Joe from his place at the top of the 3-tile casino. Still no success.

Joe smartly redecorated his small gold casino to green, giving him enough gold tiles to take over a 5-tile casino, turning it into a 7-tile gold casino sitting on the Strip.

Finally, I got the silver casino I lost in round one and it immediately paid out! Any thought that this was my moment was dashed in the next round as Katy’s own 6-tiler pays out and she surges into first.

In fact, it was very close for all players for most of the game. It was only when I turned the 7-tile casino into a 9-tile (with three dice from three players) and then I won the reorganisation that it looked like we had a definite winner. I now had a 6-tile and a 9-tile on the Strip. The next round was Game Over and the Strip paid out one last time.

Andrew 36

Katy 32

Joe 20

Ian 20

Phew, my first LoV in years and what a journey it was. We finished at the same time as Hanami, so we ended with one more communal game: Just One - the opposite game to Blob Party we played at the start! Each player gives clues to a word-guesser, avoiding repetitions.

Katy asked for no high brow clues but the word she chose was “muse” which kind of suggests high brow stuff. Joe went all cryptic on me, cluing “anaethestic” for “number” (as in something that makes you numb) and Steve clued “#” but I read it as “hash” which, with Joe’s clue, made me guess “drug”. Nope.

Sam got lucky as we all clued separate but obvious clues for “buffy”. He got it in two seconds. Amazingly, no one put “vampire”.

Anja’s word was “sleeve” which she failed to get, distracted by Joe’s clue of “Wizard’s”. He later explained to us in the car that “wizard’s sleeve” is in Roger's Profanisaurus. “Ian said he was thinking of writing it,” he added, in his defence.

According to my notes, we got 7 out of 12 with a bonus point for someone guessing the eliminated words.

And that was that! Since I had no work the next day, I was able to stay until the end - a rare treat these days. Thanks all, it was a lovely evening.

I couldn't Cairo less

 This Tuesday we all converged on Joe’s house for the weekly dose of games. When I arrived, Joe, Sam, Martin, Pete, Ian and Katy were all waiting for me and Adam H. Since Adam was a few minutes away yet, we playing a quick game of In Vino Morte. In this game, a player deals out cards that either have wine or poison on them, but only the dealer knows who is poisoned. Each player can swap their card without looking at it or “drink” (ie, turn it over to reveal its true nature).

In round one, only Katy and Joe swapped and when they showed their cards at the end of the round, they had the only two poison cards that had been dealt out. There was, as Joe commented, “a certain poetry in it.”

In the end, as we slowly eliminated players, it was down to me against Martin and I was dealing. 

I won! Martin drank the poison.

I remember people saying that I display some poker skills in the last round but I don’t recall what my strategy was.

Next we split into two groups. Tables were moved and beer was spilt as we rearranged the room so that both games had their own table.

Katy suggested Lords of Vegas, and it was early enough in the evening so that it was accepted. Pete, Ian and Joe joined Katy.

Adam, Sam, Martin and I went for something that may be described as less-luck-based but, knowing our history with flicking games, could be anything but. The game was Cairo and the idea is to roll a dice and move your boat up and down the Nile, and when it stops, you’re able to flick some of your (limited) supply of blocks from your ship and into scoring areas. 

It’s a simple majority wins rule with points for first and second place, but with the proviso that if you flick into an area and there are enough cubes already there, you can build a pyramid. You would do this because cubes at the top of the pyramid are worth more than those underneath.

I started badly, sending most of my cubes out of bounds (and out of the game) and this was, mostly, how my game played out. Martin, meanwhile, managed to knock his boat over twice losing him a cube each time as a forfeit. And this was after he’d explained that to do so was actually pretty difficult.

I did enjoy the new layout though. Having the opportunity to walk between tables gave Joe’s kitchen something of the air of a casino.

Talking of which, Lords of Vegas seemed to be a very swingy game. Joe began well, picking up points with his gold casino while two casino - green and brown - didn’t pay out at all, defying all odds. Then Ian went from having nothing to owning a 5-tile and 3-tile casino in one turn.

As for Cairo, despite me having lost 5 cubes, Sam ran out of cubes first. And when it came to adding up the final scores, Adam was a clear winner. He was first in 5 different scoring areas, a testimony to his flicking skills. He went further than the scoretrack allowed, while Martin only picked up points in one solitary area.

Adam 72

Andrew 36

Sam 34

Martin 14

As for LoV, I heard the phrase “Five 6s?! That’s mental Katy” float across the room, but otherwise they were still far from ending. We played two more games: Invaluable. 

Martin 45

Adam 43

Andrew 42

Sam 34

And then Llama Llama, which was over so quick, I didn't take any photos. Martin thrashed us, reaching the winning target of 100 in just two rounds.

Then we played a single round of Jungo- a game of playing increasingly powerful hands, which I won.

And on the other table, I heard Katy begging for the next card to be the Game End card. It was, and her very close victory was assured.

Katy 36

Joe 32

Ian 29

Pete 12

And with that, I set off. Thanks to all for another great evening.

*

After Andrew and Adam left us, we realised Pete had very little time before his train. But So Clover was out on the table so we hit upon the ruse of Pete leaving a Mystery Clover for us to solve, and taking a picture of it for cross-examination later. With myself, Katy Ian and Martin all providing sixes to start with, how would we fare with Pete's clues? 

Unfortunately, rather badly. Feline and animal both went with lion, animal also went with slug, and there were some portobello vibes to the extra card as well as our own confusion. We gave it a shot but when Martin referenced the photo Pete had sent, we'd only managed to place a single card correctly! But without Pete here to give us the second chance, we swiftly disregarded this and moved onto Joe's final clover, scoring another six to give us 30/30, or 31/36 if you want to be completist about it. We didn't. 

I forgot to take pics of everything but here are Joe and Ian's clovers - we particularly enjoyed Ian's downpour for drink/weather. 

It was nearing 11 and Katy announced she had to go, even getting as far as putting a coat on. But when Martin waved Jungo around she was tempted to stay. I was feeling like I should really head home too, but I was too tired to haul myself out of the chair so having announced I might go, I then said I was staying. Joe said he was tired and maybe he would ask us to leave, and then we played Jungo. 

tired

This is a simpler take on SCOUT - a card-shedder where you can't rearrange your cards, but can play sets of the same number (no runs) if they're sitting adjacent in your hand. What's more, when you beat something you can either discard the beaten cards or pick them up - so for example, if your two 3s beat two 2s, you can add the 2s to a solitary 2 in your mitts and make it into three 2s instead. Easy!

I enjoy this, but we did find in practice it sometimes led to two players flipping back and forth between progressively larger sets as everyone else picked up cards - when you can't or choose not to play - and found themselves spectators for periods. Still, fun though. Joe and Katy won a round each and we realised that with five, the game might run all the way past various bedtimes and called it there. 

Outside the car I'd seen dangling over the precipice on my way to Joe's earlier was now gone. Or maybe I just rode past it in a daze. 

The Adams and Jo(e)s Show

This week's games night began at the earlier time of 7pm. I arrived a little late but by no means the last. In Joe's kitchen, the host was joined by Adam H, Adam T, Ian and Katy with Jo to follow. 

We chatted about the endless possibilities facing us tonight and Katy made an early pitch for Lords Of Vegas. Joe's battered and much loved copy was brought to the table. Adam T, meanwhile, had Ahoy as an option. He described it as Root Lite, which is a tough sell in these parts. Jo, having only played it two-player, was keen and Adam H decided that an asymmetric pirate game was preferable to the whims of a handful of dice.

As we set up, I was surprised that everyone’s knowledge of the game had moved on since I last played. For a start, building up was allowed (despite it not being a five player game) and the offsetting rule (where you can choose to reduce your winnings/losses in gambling) is no longer a thing. Apparently that rule was introduced by the publishers and wasn’t part of the original vision.

So, we began playing and in her very first turn Katy was able to build a 2-tile casino. Except that she built two adjacent 1-tile casinos. Had LoV strategy changed that much?

Lady Luck spent the evening tweaking our expectations and messing with our minds. Joe needed money so he contemplated gambling, except he’d need a 1-1 or 6-6 to win enough money. Instead he decided to reorganise a 2-tile casino. He rolled 1-1. In fact, the casinos were relatively generous tonight, and Katy even cleaned me out completely when she rolled double six in my casino.

This game was all about the silver casinos. Or lack thereof, as they stubbornly refused to pay out apart from twice at the very start of the game. Otherwise, the pivotal moments came with the reorganisation of existing casinos. Towards the end, a deal between Joe and Ian gave Ian enough money to reorganise a 6-tile casino. As it happened, Joe had a single die involved and it ended up winning!

And so did he.

Joe 32

Ian 26

Andrew 23 (but we don’t do tie-breakers for third place, said Katy)

Katy 23 (no money left)

After this, Ahoy was still in full flow so we, not having had enough dice for one evening, got out Kribbeln. Surely Joe’s luck couldn’t hold out.

Well, it did. The game was full of amazing scrapes that don’t seem amazing unless you were there and by the end, Joe was so far ahead with an astonishing 30 points, eclipsing Katy's very respectable 28 points.

Joe 30

Katy 28

Ian 17

Andrew 17

But Joe did specifically ask that I mention that it was the highest score on Kribbeln to date. I also pointed out to Joe that, when writing, people put a bar through the number 7 to better distinguish it from the number 1. But he wrote his in such a way that made them look like 9s.

Ahoy ended by now. I felt sad that I’d missed most of the epic undertaking, but Vegas is pretty distracting.

Jo 34

Adam H 30

Adam T 24

And then Katy and I left while Joe went to get the So Clover.

Thanks guys. A beautiful evening.

The envoys are all glistening with chip fat

 I arrived at Joe’s to see the host, Ian, Katy, Sam, Martin and Adam H in the middle of a game of Cross Clues. I was offered a card to join in, but my mind hadn’t caught up with my body and was still a few minutes from getting here. There were a few mistakes, which I didn’t note, and a nice clue from Martin, using “Vet” to signify “cow/firefighter”. Amazingly, Katy started chatting before the game had concluded.

22 out of 25.

With all attendees present, Katy instantly suggested Lords of Vegas - insisting that the usually dice-phobic Adam was keen. Katy put the box on the table, "just in case anyone was interested" and Joe and Ian joined. No doubt Ian was keen to erase the memory of his last game where he scored only six points.

Martin, Sam and I played Cascadero. I was keen since I hadn’t played it since I’d learnt it, and needed to revisit it before I forgot everything. Apparently, I was up against the two most experienced players in the world, according to game count on Board Game Geek. An awesome achievement.

Early on in the game, Martin professed to being worried by Sam’s lengthy caravan of meeples. “This disquiets me,” he said. But he soon started to chain moves together, storming off into an impressive lead. “We're sitting at the same table but that's as far as it goes,” says Sam as Martin reached the top of his track and opened up a 29-13-12 lead.

I finished the last crisps in a bowl, reaching the point where Ian’s high class posh sea salt and peppercorn crisps mixed with some fake frazzles, and Martin made the observation that now adorns this blog post: “The envoys are all glistening with chip fat.” At first, Sam and I thought he was being poetic and commenting how rich and opulent the envoys would be if they were real but, no, that was the literal state of some of the meeples at this point. An amazing sentence, though, and one that could only be used in the context of board games. Or one of those orgies in Ancient Rome, perhaps.

It ended as a cake walk for Martin. “But you enjoyed yourself?” Katy asked Sam. “No,” he bluntly replied.

Martin 52

Andrew 20

Sam 21, but didn't finish his track 

Vegas was still barely halfway through, with various quotes drifting across the table such as “You can't lose more than you have,” Joe. “That really hurt,” Katy and “Fuck it, it’s Vegas,” Ian - at that point he was once again in a distant last.

Martin, Sam and I played Via Nebula. Before we began Sam told me and Katy that we’d played it before. “It's like being gaslit by Martin Wallace,” I said, as I couldn’t remember anything about it, if I had ever played it.

After the rules explanation, I went first and - not knowing what else to do - I made some resources available. Martin expressed bemusement about what he was actually aiming for. What “the shape of the game should be,” I think he said. He checked the rule-book mid game and found a rule that made the game less of a dickish co-op game and more conventional. Sam admitted to some disappointment.

Martin built buildings and I kept uncovering resources, both of which gained points. Our two very different strategies got us a joint first place.

Martin 22

Andrew 22 tied, and we shook hands as per the rule book's instructions

Sam 15

Then we played seaside, a game of pulling tiles from a bag and deciding which side of the tile you want to action. One side will usually let you have another turn, while putting more resources into the shared area in the middle. Or the other side will let you pick up some of what is available. At the end, we stacked up your tiles to see who’s the tallest!

Sam wins!

I was dimly aware of a lengthy discussion in LoV while Joe asked for donations to reroll a casino, but eventually the game ended with an impressive win for Katy. And an almost-as-impressive comeback for Ian.

Katy 54

Ian 23

Adam and Joe 20

Katy commented that Adam only rolled ones throughout the game. Adam the dice-skeptic didn't seem to want to comment.

And that was it for me. But the others played on and scored a perfect 36 out of 36 in So Clover.

And finally Martin, Joe and Sam played Klink.

Joe 93

Martin 82

Sam 64

Thanks and see you all soon.

Bum Puppet

Today, the postman had pushed a whole load of mail through my letterbox for an entirely different house. Luckily, it was a house on Joe's street and so I set off to games with a little more intent than usual. So much so that I didn't notice Katy's other half, Rob, until I'd gone past and he'd said hello.

I arrived at Joe's where the host was already entertaining Adam T, Sam, Katy, Ian and Martin. Adam H got here soon after and we sorted out chairs and seating arrangements. I said that this was pointless since we'd surely swap places for games but it turned out we didn't need to. Half the table played the new Martin Wallace while the other half played a new Knizia. Wallace versus Knizia! What an occasion!

Sam, Adam T, Ian and Katy played Via Nebula, which seemed to be about clearing fog. But I didn't follow it much after Katy said “Let's play nice.”

And she did!

Katy 23

Ian 22

Adam 20

Sam 16

Sam said he liked it, despite “getting rinsed.”

Meanwhile, Martin, Joe, Adam T and I played Cascadero. When introducing it, Martin dismissively said it was some bullshit about kings but then we insisted that we needed to know the backstory and insisted he read it out. And he did. In character.

I can't remember it, though, except that we were ministers of industry, agriculture, textiles and money or something. The idea of the game is to put your envoys on the board so that they link up cities and push cubes up several bonus tracks to trigger extra moves/more points. Each minister has a particular bonus track that they must complete otherwise, in fine Knizia style, you are disqualified.

During this game, Joe pondered that whenever he saw a bonus track, he always wanted to bump up it. This was deliberately misheard fro comedy effect and gave us this week's blog title.

It was fine. I think we were far less shitty to each other than we could have been. Especially to Martin who got a juicy ten point bonus but Adam always seemed to be at his shoulder.

Although the end of the game was made notably more exciting by Joe's cat who decided to sit on Adam's lap and stare at the game as if it were easy prey just waiting for a pounce.

Martin 49

Adam T 44

Andrew 29

Joe 29 (but an incomplete bonus track)

It was good, although an odd ending. Options were sparse. Martin couldn't finish the game by reaching 50 points and we eventually ended when Adam ran out of meeples.

While we finished, the others played Little Tavern, with a little variant where they read out the flavour text on the card they drew and the others had to guess if they were goblin/witch/elf etc.

Ian 26

Sam 19

Katy 19

Adam H 19

Then, amazingly, Lords of Vegas was brought to the table! At 9.15! But it was chosen because it was Katy's last games night for a month, and they seeded the game over card a little earlier in the deck than normal, to shorten the game. 

Ian explained the rules to Adam T and I was a little surprised to see the dice-averse Adam H as one of the participants. “Do you usually win?” asked Adam T, seeing Katy’s excitement at playing. She insisted she didn’t (which, in fairness, is true) but next time I looked over, Katy had a very early three-tile casino on the Strip.

We played Spectral, a deduction game in which players secretly look at cards (in a 4x4 grid) and note the clues revealed in order to deduce where the most jewels may be. And to avoid the demons. It was okay. Sam seemed to struggle, although he said he felt confident heading into the closing stages, while I was confident of where to avoid but didn’t pick up enough gems to make an attempt on the lead.

Joe 48

Martin 38

Sam 27

Andrew 24

In Vegas, meanwhile, Adam paid $40m to sprawl into a new square and, in doing so, took over a seven-tile casino on the strip. Ian, meanwhile, was stuck on 3 points while Adam H had 12, Katy 16 and Adam T was on 20. His exclamations over disdain as his luck echoed around the room. Meanwhile, Adam H sprawled into a new plot and got himself a new seven-tile casino for “only” $40m.

After Spectral, we played Cabanga. Martin told me it was fun because you got to say “Cabanga” and I pointed out I could do that anyway. But it’s all about context, and saying “cabanga” meaning “fuck you” was more fun than just blurting it out like an idiot. 

Sam 4

Martin 4

Andrew 6

Joe 7

We only played two of the regulation three rounds because Lords of Vegas ended, with a possible lowest score for Ian.

Katy 44

Adam T 32

Adam H 26

Ian 6

The two Adams left and we ended on So Clover. With six of us, there was the chance of a legendary 36 out of 36. Joe actually exercised the rarely used rule of being able to reset your clover, after he admitted to just staring at “magnascope.” We began well, although we had a few close calls. Ian, in particular, had a mean decoy with “rifle” that fitted his clue of “killer” perfectly until we reconsidered that “white/colour” wasn’t a good fit for “wedding”.

With five out of five, it was all down to Joe, but alas it wasn’t to be. Despite his second chance at getting some workable words, we failed twice to get his clover right.

33 out of 36

No fame for us tonight. But lots of fun.  Thanks guys.

The only way is F6

 By the time I'd arrived at 8 o'clock I'd already received a picture of the evening in full swing, as Ian, Martin, Katy, Sam and host Joe began with Cross Clues, scoring 24/25.

By the time I'd arrived (seconds after I received a second photo of them having finished another game 22/25) Martin, Joe and Sam had settled on Hansa Teutonica while Ian, Katy and I pondered our options. Quite limited options, as it happened, and Katy rued not bringing Isle of Skye. In the end we chose something we all knew: Lords of Vegas. 

My initial plan was to sprawl early, nabbing F6 and F5 to make a lovely six-tile casino up on Harmon Avenue and Strip. Ian started well while Katy tried to boost her meagre cash reserves by gambling, failing three times in a row. But then the strip paid out and then her three tile gold casino paid out twice in a row. This meant she was able to exploit all those empty lots near Ian's casinos and before long she was in an unstoppable position. 

Ian and I jostled for second. Ian completed an audacious reroll of my five tile casino with only one of his dice in it. But I got it straight back. Katy ended the game building more casinos than she had dice. Finally the game over card appeared just as I was about to unleash my winning strategy (which would've still only got me a closer second place).

Ian's amazing reroll

Katy 49

Andrew 36

Ian 32

As for Hansa Teutonica, I remember little except remarks about how boring the food was on the little plate tokens and Sam remarking that the person complaining most was the one in the lead, before clarifying that they were all complaining.

Martin 54

Sam 52

Joe 38

Martin remarked it'd probably be a really good game once you knew what you were doing.

They'd finished before us and they filled the time with a quick game of Don Carlo. A game so apparently simple that you may be able to work out the rules just by looking at the photo.

Joe 76

Sam 51

Martin 50

My departure was growing near so I was pleased to hear So Clover as a suggestion. We played with the usual amount sighing, especially from Joe who took so long that Katy suggested he just pass. But everyone struggled and I took the chance to be the first one to complete all four clues.

Ian and I - a solid start

Meanwhile, Sam had to resort to googling something to help him out. My clues and Ian's were successfully deduced. Then Katy, too, scored six out of six, but I'm not sure how since one of her clues relied on a film titled "the silence of killing" only to later be told it was actually called "the act of killing."

Sam's googled clue was a success but he was undone by trying to clue "beer/detergent" with "toilets". Finally, after Martin went clear, we came to Joe's Clover that almost defeated him. And we cleared it! The tricky couple in question was "royal/flour" which he eventually decided on "chapati" because… Indian food is sort of regal. Something like that. It worked, though.

34 out of 36

With that, I set off home. They finished with American Bookshop which Sam won. Joe second and Martin last, with Ian and Katy somewhere in the middle. Results to follow, maybe.