Dice Boobs

This week witnessed the first GNN of the year for a couple of regulars: Sam, the host, and Joe. However, any attempt at wishing Joe a Happy New Year were met with a dismissive insistence that it was far too late by now.

The rest of us trying to wish him happy tidings were Katy, Ian, Martin, Adam and myself. At the beginning we were also joined by Sam's boys, Stanley and Joe.

We began with Fuji Flush to get us under way. Sam began well, but then got stuck on three cards. Katy began slowly and then shed five cards in quick succession. Stanley played the move of the game, as four of us put down fours and were getting excited about our chances of beating two eights (if I remember this right) when he put down a seventeen and cleared the table.

Doomed

Adam, Katy and Martin were all sitting next to each other and were appalled whenever they had to team up together. It ended in tense fashion with more than half on just one card.

Little Joe 0
Adam 1
Andrew 1
Katy 1
Stanley 1
Martin 1
Joe 2
Sam 3

After this we split into two groups. Joe, Katy, Martin and I chose Majesty. Sam, Stanley, little Joe and Adam went for Blokus, the game of, well, blocking. I didn't pay it too much attention but when the final scores were announced, I was pleased that the two adults had not gone easy on their inexperienced opponents.

Sam 13
Adam 15
Joe 19
Stanley 26

Then it was bed for the boys and a quick two player game of Fugitive. This ended in a draw, as Sam explained "we're not sure who won because I don't have the board or the rules." which would explain the improvised card area.

Sam looked it up on the Internet, and concluded that Adam won. "Something to do with the 29."

Anyway, that was the exciting half of the table. The four of us playing Majesty had a fairly hollow experience. Katy complained throughout that it just wasn't her kind of game and the rest of us found it rather bland. The artwork was typical eurogame medieval subjects and the game mechanism of playing cards to get points was quite drab.

Joe 181
Andrew 177
Katy 159
Martin 143

Back as a single group again, it was time to split up again. Ian had bought the Tichu set he'd received in the Secret Santa, so he and Martin faced Joe and Katy. It started in fine fashion, with two Grand Tichus called and completed in the first two rounds.

Sam, Adam and myself played Rajas of the Ganges. We persuaded Adam by telling him that it was exactly the kind of game that he would be good at. In fact, I was preparing myself for a heavy defeat before we even began.

Near the start of the game, when Sam didn't take a particular option that got him a lot of money, Adam asked if there was a reason he hadn't done that. "Just stupidity," shrugged Sam when he saw what he'd missed.

Adam had clearly decided that money was the way to go, since it had all those bonuses along it. He generated dice so efficiently that he had to use his player mat's “dice boobs” to hold them all.

He also made good use of the Score Mixed Markets option. Then, once the money track had paid out its last bonus, he turned his attention to glory points and quickly finished the game. Sam matched Adam for glory, but not for cash. I was a long way back, having not even picked up my second extra meeple.

Adam's considerable lead on the money track.

1. Adam
2. Sam
3. Andrew

The Tichu group played out one last hand when we had ended. Not the full one-thousand pointer, but enough to give Ian a taste, I imagine.

Joe & Katy 600
Ian & Martin 500

Next up was another reshuffling of the groups. Katy, Martin and I played Azul. You'd have thought, after playing against Adam at a eurogame, I'd have learnt my lesson, but I must've been in a masochistic mood this night. Sam, Joe, Ian and Adam chose Poison.

During these two games, and I can't remember why, we all tried to work out our defining traits. We ended up with Martin – evil, Katy – annoying, Andrew – snide, Joe – avuncular, Ian – self-depreciating, Adam – calculating and Sam – mistaken. Joe, though, did not like his nominated trait. He pointed out that the definition was “kind and friendly towards a younger or less experienced person” which he found somewhat inappropriate. Katy pointed out that he was the oldest one here but, like the New Year's greetings at the start of the evening, Joe simply refused to accept his new defining trait.

All of this shouldn't detract from the gaming activities. In Azul, I was disconcerted by Martin's constant glances over to my board. He played a spoiling game, such that I scored only six points in my first round, but I was too distracted to do the same to Katy. She had no issues with putting together her mosaic and spent most of the game complimenting her own work, like a bird happily chirping in its nice new nest.

Only when she felt victory was assured did she look up and try to ruin Martin's game. He had to pick up negative-scoring tiles at the end of the game, which pushed me into an unlikely second.

Katy 75
Andrew 57
Martin 51

Poison ended:

Sam 4 (with two clear rounds, I believe)
Adam 17
Ian 17
Joe 29

Now it was the end of the evening and we were all together. Dead Man's Chest was suggested and pooh-poohed. Instead we decided on a subdued game of Hugo. This game is usually so loud, it's been banned twice, so we kept out cries of anguish to a minimum. It was especially hard for Katy who got so excited she had to insist she wasn't drunk on the gin she'd bought with her. Unfortunately it came out as “I haven't had any more Jill,” so no one believed her.

We played three rounds. In the first round, Sam was the last-man standing but a comfortable distance ahead. Hugo then sped around two corners and finished him off before he could move. In the second, it was the opposite. Joe was left alive in a precarious position but Hugo wouldn't budge. The dice went right around the table without a Hugo in sight. Then Joe rolled a 1 and managed to sneak into a +3 room.

It was a rare piece of luck for him.

Martin 25
Sam 26
Ian 30
Katy 32
Adam 35
Andrew 37
Joe 41

And with that, we were done. Another quality evening's entertainment done and dusted.

I'll Tichu a thing or two

Christmas at Joe's was actually Christmas at Joe's parents, who were away and allowing their offspring to party while the house was empty. By party, I obviously mean play games, which began with three of us - the host, Stanley and myself (Sam; Andrew will take over narrative duties when he arrives). And by empty, I mean there was some Michael Crawford style comedy of Joe being unable to let Stanley and I via the back door, so we passed games through a gap under the window before walking around the block to reach the front door.

Finally in, there was some further comedy - less Michael Crawford, more Friday Night Dinners - about getting the heating working, before we finally stood perusing our options. I was keen to play Rajas of the Ganges, Stan suggested Pulsar, but Joe proposed we begin with lighter fare in the form of Majesty: For the Realm.

Generation game

Each of us has a tableau of cards forming key buildings in a village (Inn, Barracks, etc) and on your turn, you simply add a card from the display beneath one of the buildings to gain points and sometimes some other benefit. But claiming the cards uses the same economy as Tribes or Firenze - the further up the display you go, the more expensive the card is.

Cards!

Joe focused on his castle and the chaining of this rewarding multiplier offset the attacks from Stanley (via Barracks) and my mish-mash of different cards. If Stan had managed to get himself a single castle card he might have claimed a debut win, but as it was the host's calculated castling got him the victory:

Joe 190
Stan 184
Sam 179

It was quite a sweet game, and I definitely prefer it to Splendor. And with the palette-cleanser out of the way, I suggested Rajas of the Ganges again, but no joy. Joe was keen to play The Quest for El Dorado though, and this was met with murmurs of approval from Stan and I.

forgot to take a photo

If only we'd known then how Joe was going to show us a clean pair of heels and sail off to the most convincing victory I've seen yet, with both Stan and I miles behind him. Stupid game!

Joe wins.
Sam probably second.
Stan most likely third.

With time on the afternoon session running out, the possibility of playing Rajas of the Ganges looked remote and so we had a few rounds of Zendo, doing the easy and figure-able-out rules.

plastic!

Katy arrived at the tail end of it when I was master, and guessed the rule before either Joe or Stan did. Then it was time to take Stanley home for tea, which I did, hoping that when I returned, perhaps we'd play Rajas of the Ganges!  We bumped into Andrew arriving as we left, and it is he who will now tell you the story of What Happened Next.

*

I arrived at around five o’clock, just in time to pass Stan and Sam leaving the house. Inside I found Joe and Katy about to embark upon the grand tour of Joe’s parents’ house. Soon after this, Adam arrived so Katy and I decided that now would be the best time to go and get chips. We set off, with promises to get Adam some chips too.

But the chip shop was shut so we went walking to find other food establishments. We looked in the local shop, but did not fancy limp sandwiches and crisps. Instead we found a “multi-cuisine” place that did wraps. And fries too, so we were sorted.

We returned and ate while we watched Adam and Joe play Azul.

Joe 60
Adam 54

“And that's the only time I will ever beat Adam at Azul.” said Joe, referring to the fact that it was Adam’s first game.

We were still waiting for Sam to return for the evening session, so we decided to start playing a game of Tichu. The last time I played it was a while ago, and I didn’t care for it (I don’t like old card games given a few new game-breaking cards and then sold as a brand new game) but I was happy to try again.

We split into teams according to how we were sat around the table, and began. There were a few occasions when I sighed at Tichu's fiddly rules, and Katy kept playing a card or set of cards by mistake and then putting them back into her hand meaning that we all knew what she had. It didn’t seem to help us, as Joe completed an early Grand Tichu and put them into an early lead.

Katy and Joe 295
Adam and Andrew 105

Then Sam returned and we finished off the hand we were playing while he satisfied his curiosity by investigating the cellar. Once we were all together we decided to play a five-player before the inevitable split into smaller components. Five players is a tricky number and, in this mostly gameless house, our options were more limited than usual. But Sam had brought The Godfather: A New Don so we set it up and he explained the rules for the newcomers.

It was fun, and there was a nice amount of muscling in on each others’ patches but there was confusion about when you can re-roll and, like the last time we played, the grimy pastel colour scheme lead to some confusion about where the boundaries were.

Adam won, despite having never been the Godfather while Joe came pretty close despite having only a handful of soldiers on the board. Perhaps there are hidden depths to this game under its murky surface.

Adam 15
Andrew 14
Sam 14
Joe 13
Katy 8

Nice, but a bit too long with five.

So now we split into two groups. Katy cradled Yokohama in her arms long enough to tempt Adam into a rematch. The board looks tiny when it’s set up for only two players.

Sam, Joe and I played Paperback since Joe couldn’t find his copy of Movable Type that he thought he’d brought with him. Paperback is a word building game.

I found it a bit dry. You make a word that gets you enough money to buy a new letter card which, if you use that in a word later on gives you even more money to buy cards. It was a “get stuff to get stuff” mechanic pasted onto a word-making game.

Sam 46
Joe 39
Andrew 29

Yokohama was still in full swing, so we played Azul. Such a nice game, with opportunities for evil. Sam told Joe to “stop looking at my board!” But I got two columns completed for a win.

Andrew 62
Joe 51
Sam 45

As for Yokohama, Adam didn’t score any points at all while Katy raced into a 44-0 lead. Adam said he was “trying something”.

Whatever it was, it almost worked. I remember him making a long and complicated mega-move near the game end and, during the final count up, it was quite close.

Katy 129
Adam 124

In the after game discussion, Adam worked out that he could’ve won if only he’d played his last turn differently.

Then Katy neatly put the game away. Into the box lid. She just closed it anyway, and flipped it over so it was the right way up again, to Joe's appalled wails of dismay.

Than Sam decided he would probably go back and, in indecent haste, Joe said “We can finish Tichu!” before he remembered to thank Sam for joining us.

Katy was not keen, preferring instead Divinare but Joe had already said he wasn’t in the mood for new any more rules. She was also unwilling to lose their 295-105 lead. "Come on, we'll take it home!" said Joe, encouragingly.

So we recommenced our game. It was an epic. Adam and I came out of the traps running, winning the first two hands in first and second for two 200-point bonuses. Then I got cocky and failed a Tichu, allowing J&K back into the game. Joe Grand Tichued again, under extraordinary circumstances. When he picked up the card given to him by Katy, he pointed out that if your partner declares a Grand Tichu it’s usually the done thing to give them your best card.

But despite Katy’s lack of help because she wanted to keep the two straights she had (we later found out she’d given him a five) and despite having no aces in his hand, Joe still managed to complete his Grand Tichu to edge them back into the lead.

Later Adam put down a 12-card run, which was nice.

Soon after that I noticed that midnight had passed and, since this was the closest to a New Year’s Party that I was going to this year, I wished everyone a happy new year!!

Katy was keen for the game to end, and seemed disappointed that Adam and I, regaining the lead, ended a round a mere ten points off the game-ending 1,000 point mark.

Surely it would end in the next round. And it did, but only just, as a lone king in our stack of tricks gave us the ten points we needed to close the game as winners.

Adam and Andrew 1,000
Katy and Joe 800

And so we were done. Phew, what an evening. What a year! Well done everyone for getting to the end. Let’s do it all again next year.

Happy New Year!