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.

Calmer chameleon

Tuesdays at Joe's. Six gamers: Joe, Katy, Martin, Sam, Steve and myself. We began with The Chameleon, a new Spyfall-esque game of pretending to know more than you really do. Perhaps I should be concerned that I seem to be quite good at it.

We played three rounds. In the first round Sam was the chameleon and the clue was Rom-Com. Halfway through this round Steve finally worked out that all the non-chameleons knew the same word. This probably made things clearer.

Our words for rom-com mostly seemed based around vague references to Four Weddings and a Funeral, but it wasn't clear enough to Sam. He was outed as the chameleon and incorrectly guessed Comedy as the mystery word. We'd won.

At the start of the next round, Joe remarked that it'd be almost impossible to not be identified as the chameleon. I checked my card and discovered that it was me this time. I found it surprisingly stressful. Suddenly the game turned into Codenames as I frantically (but calmly) tried to think of words that would cover as many potential answers as possible. I chose Grey and, boy, did I get lucky. The mystery word/thing was Game of Thrones, which involves a family name that contains the word Grey. All the suspicion fell on Joe who was last to think of a word, and it did not impress. I won!

For the third round I was appalled to find myself as the chameleon again. The subject was historical people, and I worked out that about a third of them had connections to islands, so that's what I said, realising that if the secret was Anne Frank that I'd be caught out pretty quickly. And I got lucky again, since it was Charles Darwin. But not lucky enough. The vote to identify the chameleon was split three ways and Martin had the deciding vote, and he voted for me. I was exposed. I successfully identified the secret so technically I won, but I was still disappointed.

After all that stress, we split into two groups of three. Sam, Katy and Martin chose a number of short games. The first of which, I think, was Spires.

Sam took a risk on the last turn and, apparently, got royally screwed for his bravery. This lumbered him with a pile of negative points right at the end.

Martin 97
Katy 61
Sam 28

Joe, Steve and me brought Manila to the table. It was new to Steve but it's not hugely complicated. At heart, it's a betting game, appealing to the compulsive gambler in all of us. My early game went well, with a couple of choice pirating expeditions bringing in a heap of money. But the dice were being generous anyway, with one round ending with all of us earning over 30 in cash.

Meanwhile, the other three moved on to Steam Park. A massively complicated looking game whose main mechanic seems to revolve around cleaning up dirt. At the beginning, Katy and Martin kept protesting that they didn't know what they were doing.

But before long, those teething troubles were over and they were well into the swing of things. It ended:

Martin 88
Sam 79
Katy 76

In Manila, Joe was in money troubles and had to encumber some shares. He had to pull of an audacious tactic of getting money and also betting on none of the three ships coming in. And it worked.

Steve also struggled with cash but had no encumbered shares to worry about.

The other three played Lords of Scotland. I barely remember it, but the scores were:

Katy 41
Martin 31
Sam 16

Then they played Eggs of Ostrich, which Katy won despite bursting all but one of her bags, but having two lovely chunks of amber.

Katy 13
Sam 9
Martin 2

Finally, Manila was coming to a close. Once I was far in the lead in money mid-game, I'd played cautiously. Steve made a late conversion to piracy but it didn't pay out as much as mine. Joe managed to unencumber his shares to fight his way back to a healthy second place.

Andrew 157
Joe 125
Steve 98

Then we played a quick game about dirty pigs. If I hadn’t taken a photo I would have completely forgotten about it. I think I won.

Now we were all back together, and ready for a game of Fuji Flush. I started to flag during this game, and helped Martin to a quick win causing howls of dismay from the other players (although, in my defence, it also stopped me coming dead last).

Martin 0 cards left
Steve 1
Joe 1
Sam 2
Katy 2
Andrew 2

But then as some of us got ready to go, a hardcore splinter group of Sam, Joe and Martin stayed seated, contemplating another game. I was briefly tempted to sit back down and join them but was quickly reminded that I ended the last game on purpose. And so, banished from the games room, I snuck off into the night.

Manila favoured

This week's gaming was hosted by the ever genial Joe. At first we were six (Joe, Sam, Martin, Katy, me and, making his debut for 2017, Andy) with a seventh (Ian) coming later.

As a six , after initial greetings and conversation, we got down to the nitty gritty of deciding what to play. This process was made a little more difficult by the fact that the bulb in Joe's utility room had gone.  Lack of visibility aside, Joe offered up Dream Home. No one seemed keen and, for myself, I have difficulty with the rather prim artwork. Joe's sales pitch that his daughters liked it didn't sway me. Instead we went for Team Play with Sam graciously not vetoing the choice. He is not a fan of the game and by the end he was thinking of variants.

Joe and Andy sped out of the blocks, looking to end the game quickly by finishing off some cheap and easy objectives. Sam and I went for the opposite: high scoring but difficult. Not that we had a great deal of choice, it was just what we were dealt. I ended the game with the same mission card in front of me that I started with.

Katy and Martin, the two doctors, also went for quality albeit a little more efficiently than Sam and I did. They won, despite having two fewer mission cards than Andy & Joe. Plus, their average points per mission was the same as ours.

Martin & Katy 20
Joe & Andy 19
Sam & Andrew 16

After this, we split into two groups of three. Sam finally got his introduction to Imhotep, along with fellow newbie Andy being taught the rules by Martin.

Aware that Ian would be arriving at some point, Katy, Joe and I went for a co-operative game, Colour Wheel from the games compendium Pyramid Arcade. I explained the tiny amount of rules and we were off. We didn't play in silence, and a couple of moves raised some eyebrows in puzzlement, but we refrained from telling each other outright what to do.

During this game, Ian arrived and he was quickly enrolled on to the wheel. Perhaps too quickly, as he stared, baffled at the multicoloured pyramids for a good couple of minutes before he passed, saying his brain wasn't up to speed yet. Then he sat down. For the first time this evening. Sorry, Ian. Should've given you time to at least get your feet under the table.

Finally, Colour Wheel came to a close, with all of us confidently saying it could be done in two moves. All of us except Joe, whose go it was.But despite the last minute pressure, we cleared the challenge with two moves to spare.

We win!

So,with Imhotep still mid-game, the four of us chose our main course for the evening: Manila. A lovely game. Perhaps one of my favourites, as I somewhat oversold it as the board game Grand Theft Auto. I was asked how and I said, well, you can deliver goods or be a pirate or...

Anyway, the game involves betting on the arrival (or non arrival) of boats laden with goods. And while dice make move them along, being the Harbour Master allows you to alter the starting position.

The bidding for this privilege was harsh. I think it never went for less than ten, and sometimes as much as twenty. Also pivotal was the pirate option. Ian took it twice, with no reward while my two attempts both ended in success.

Joe went for shares and played, as I recall, quite a sensible game. Apart from when he started babbling about selling his bum at the harbourside. Not sure what prompted that. Also we discussed the unit of measurement known as the fuck-ton, and decided it was probably equivalent to five shitloads.

Around this time, Imhotep ended. Sam's mid-game bout of analysis paralysis perhaps pointed to a difficulty with the game, but he wasn't too far behind. Martin, meanwhile, loses at Imhotep by one point again.

Andy 46
Martin 45
Sam 35

Then they played Eggs Of Ostrich. All I remember about this game is whenever I looked over, they were all playing the same card.

They played two rounds:

Martin 11
Andy 9
Sam 7

Sam 11
Martin 4
Andy 2

Then, while we four were still bickering about silk and ginseng, they began a game of Cottage Garden. This passed me by as I was deep in the grip of Manila-fever, trying to squeeze profits out of the final rounds.

In the end, I went for the pirate route and it came off dramatically. I got a whole boat to myself and steered it in to port. As the final count was made, Katy seemed confident. You can imagine her dismay at the final reckoning:

Joe 145
Andrew 143
Katy 132
Ian 72

Cottage Garden, too, ended about now.

Martin 57
Sam 53
Andy 46

So with all seven of us together, we decided on Fuji Flush to end the evening, accompanied by some whisky from Lidl served in hot glasses straight from the dishwasher. Katy also wanted to play Dead man's Chest, but when Joe went to get it, the lack of light meant the box he chose was actually Hanafuda. A great game, but only plays two.

Anyway, Martin wasn't keen on DMC, so we charged through three raucous rounds (maybe a bit too loud) of Fuji Flush. As an addition, I also kept track of those infamous Dick Moves, when a player ruins other players' chances of success by only a single point.

Andrew 0
Sam 1
Ian 1
Martin 3
Katy 3
Andy 3
Joe 3

In this round, we started with six cards each which Andy pointed out was wrong: for seven players it should be five. We were all stunned by the sight of Martin getting a rule wrong. Sam seemed happiest as he sat back in his chair and said “Welcome to the club, Martin.”

And then...

Katy 0
Andy 1
Joe 1
Martin 2
Sam 2
Ian 3
Andrew 3

And finally, what a finale! Four of us checked out at the same time by playing four 10 cards!

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

Phew. And who played the most dick points across the three games?

A photo of a dick, mid-move

Katy 7
Joe 6
Andy 6
Sam 5
Martin 5
Ian 4
Andrew 1

Oh, Katy, you're so cruel. Good thing dick points aren't Leaderboard.

Talking of which, this week's Division is full of treats and surprises.

Let me just explain these new categories. In Best Sport, a player gets a point if they agree to play a game they're bad at (“bad at” defined as: their average score is only one half or less of the leader's score). Cup Upset is when a player who until now was especially bad at a game (average score one third or less of the leader's score) actually wins it. And Total Dominance is awarded to a player if a result pushes or maintains their average score at 80% or higher of the leader's score.

Just for the record, Martin's points in Total Dominance come almost exclusively from Eggs of Ostrich, but also from Imhotep too. Even though he hardly ever wins it. Ian's comes from Eggs of Ostrich. Joe's is from Manila. And Sam's comes from Fuji Flush and Rolling America.

And the Cup Upsets were: Katy (Eggs of Ostrich and Fuji Flush); me (Imhotep); Sam (Mamma Mia and Eggs of Ostrich); and Matt (both from Eggs of Ostrich)

Hmm, Eggs of Ostrich seems to be quite a swingy game.

Anyway, thanks all. It was a pleasure.

House rules rule!

The first Tuesday of a new season, and nine of us converged at Sam’s house for an evening of white hot battle (with drinks and nibbles and a newly fixed light overhead). Attendees were Sam, Joe, Matt, Martin, Ian, Katy, Ben, Andy and myself. Since the front room was in use, we were limited to the kitchen and, even with Sam’s kitchen table at full stretch, it would be snug fit.

We began with a nice friendly game of Continuous Pairs: the version were there’s only one loser. Which was me.

We split into three groups of three. Martin and I were unable to find a third for Impulse, so instead Ben, Matt and Andy took up the middle of the table with Beasty Bar. Martin, Katy and Ian perched at the end nearest the wall, playing Vikings. Finally, Joe, Sam and myself occupied the other end with Manila.

With so many games happening at once, it was hard to keep track of anything. The middle group quickly sped off two games of Beasty Bar:

Ben 6
Andy 3 (and 23)
Matt 3 (and 25)

Followed by

Ben 4
Matt 3
Andy 1 (“a charitable one,” as he described it)

And after that they began a game of Port Royal. At this point, Martin looked up from his board and surveyed the table covered by three games with seas and boats and said “It’s all gone very nautical in here.” A nice thematic moment to the evening.

The next game to end was Vikings:

Martin 74
Katy 43
Ian 38

They began a game of Biblios to fill the time until other games had ended.

In Manila, we placed our bets on the three boats pulling into harbour and our share of the cargo/landing fees. We needed a rule refresher and found the similarity in names of two roles: the pirate and the pilot, rather confusing. But we got going eventually. Joe went big on nutmeg, Sam on blue silk while I was impressed enough by lucky ginseng that I tried a late attempt at buying some.

During the first few rounds Sam or Joe had always put ginseng in the third lane at zero. But it managed to come in once when I was the only one on board and then I landed on it as a pirate, so it seemed especially charmed for me.

Not charmed enough to overcome Sam’s and Joe’s more sensible spread-betting, though.

Joe 112
Sam 97
Andrew 87

By now Port Royal was over and Ben had clocked up another win while Andy blamed Explainer’s Curse.


Ben 13
Matt 8
Andy 7

Since Biblios was still ongoing, the six of us decided on a quick dash through Dragon Run. Even though it’s a five-player game, we thought it could accommodate one more, surely. At first we stuck to previous definitions of Treasure Card mean card with actual treasure on them, but a reading of the rule book indicated that a Treasure Card was any card from the Treasure Deck. Another rule to be challenged was that “You may take another turn” allowed a player to stop without having to hide in the shadows or cry like a girl.

I think the discussion about took up most of the game. It ended with another win for Joe:

Joe 16
Andrew 14
Sam 12
Ben 8
Matt 7
Andy 6

I suppose Andy could blame Explainer’s Curse again, since he was the one explaining the real rules to us while we played.

During Dragon Run, Biblios ended with all five dice on three. Katy just won on the dice-colour tie-breaker (and, technically speaking, the money tie-breaker).

Katy 6 (plus blue die)
Martin 6
Ian 3

And they also managed to squeeze in a game of Port Royal

Katy 12 (plus 9)
Ian 12 (plus 2)
Martin 7

Before we all joined together for a rousing game of 6nimmt. Agony was shared around evenly this time, in this high scoring round. Ben (already in last with 62) had to go before the final round, so Dirk took his final go for him. And for a while it looked like Dirk might do quite well. Only for a while, that is. Martin sealed the win with two clear rounds in a row.

Martin 30
Katy 39
Ian 49
Matt 64
Andy 65
Joe 66
Sam 68
Andrew 69
Ben 94

And that was that. Off back home to bed to dream of Joe’s “largest D20 in the world” (approx).

As for the Division, a bit weird (as early divisions usually are) with Ben's lead on Points Ratio entirely due to the fact that only three players have played enough games to have a points ratio. His lead on the Medal Table is more deserved, and Martin leads on Points.

Aisha

My first thought when I learned who was coming tonight was "We can play I'm the Boss!". This is not Sam's favourite game, but he wasn't in attendance tonight and there were six of us - the perfect number! 
It was only once we were all assembled; Andrew, Ian, Matt, Gonz, Martin and I, and I went to dig out the game, that I  remembered I'd loaned it to Sam on Sunday for set-dressing on Box Fresh, the board game sitcom he's currently shooting. Bah!

So we played Igloo Pop to warm up. This was new to Gonz and Matt, and it seems one's ears need time to attune - Ian had no such issues, presumably having used a Tibetan ear candle before his arrival in preparation.  

Ian 23
Joe/Martin 13
Andrew 12
Gonz 11
Matt 9

We then split in to two groups of three, and performed the obligatory 15 minute discussion about what to play, eventually arriving at Lords of Vegas and Manila, by way of Vikings anda brief flirtation with Mars, Red Planet. 

Andrew, Ian and Matt set up Manila, and Martin and I brought Gonz up to speed on Lords of Vegas. We had a custom dice-arena, poker chips and even proper Vegas-style dice for gambling; we were all set. 

Vegas as seen from the shores of Manila

Half an hour in, and I was absolutely dead in the Vegas dust. I often find with LoV, much like Settlers of Catan, one player is shut out early on, with no hope of catching up. Tonight this seemed to be my lot, as Gonz and Martin sped off up the scoreboard,and I languished at three points. It seemed to be a two-horse race, despite Martin's reassurance that the game has more swing than Sinatra at the Oasis. But two things happened that turned my game around. First Gonz reorganised a 6 point green casino on the strip, and after three re-rolls for conflicting bosses, I came out on top.

It was agony to watch, but the end-result was my first real showing on the board. And the second piece of luck was that my new shiny green casino paid out on the next three turns, or thereabouts. It was unbelievable, but I was suddenly back in the running. Coupled with this, Martin's game had stalled, after he painted several of his casinos a dodgy shade of pink, which resolutely failed to pay out. As soon as all the greens had come out, the game ended, which was frankly the perfect point of me, and after the strip paid out, we were tied for points, meaning money in hand was the tie-breaker. It was one of the highest scoring games I've played I think; and had I not wrestled control of that green casino, Gonz may have achieved the mythic insta-win of 70 points.

The amazing three-way tie.

Earlier in the game, when I had no chance of catching up, I'd counselled Gonz on the importance of holding onto some money at the end, as in my experience there was often a tie for points. That came back to bite me, as Gonz had a healthy stack of chips for the win, and I came second - I have never been happier to come second. It was an awesome, epic game, though had Lady Luck not shined on me in the second half it would have been an enervating 90 minutes that left me cursing the game. But that's Vegas, baby.

Meanwhile, Andrew had taught Ian and Matt Manila, and these were the scores - shaping up to be a good night for Ian:

Ian 122
Matt 97
Andrew 88

They moved on to TransEuropa, the sequel to TransFattyAcids, and these were the scores:

Andrew 2
Matt 7
Ian 8

The birth of the railways

Andrew, exhausted from his part in shooting Box Fresh, wandered off in to the night, and we remaining five had a quick game of Port Royal. Except we discovered that a five player game of Port Royal is not so quick. I think it took us about an hour. It was fun, as always, but my mind was still on Vegas; I was proudly standing in front of my huge 9 point emerald green casino, Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton ringing in my ears. When the music faded, Port Royal was over and Ian had his third comfortable win of the evening.

Ian 12
Martin 10
Gonz 9
Matt 8 (most money)
Joe 8

Everyone wandered off in to the night, and I settled down to consider a title for the blog. Yurt Cobain had come up in conversation last time we played Igloo Pop, in considering possible sequels to that game. It fits the bill particularly well I think, but if successful, the franchise could run and run: Tent Reznor? Marquee Mark? Caravan Morrison?

In the end I went for something a little more cryptic - there's a prize for the first person who can explain the relevance of word Aisha to the evening's proceedings.

Meanwhile, let's all raise a glass to a new name to top the form table: Ian's recent run of good form mean that he's the man of the moment right now.

						Points
Ian	1	3	1	2	1	8
Andrew	1	3	3	2	1	10
Martin	2	3	2	1	2	10
Sam	1	2	3	3	2	11
Gonz	3	1	4	1	3	12
Joe	5	2	2	3	1	13
Matt	4	2	2	5	2	15
Will	2	4	2	3	5	16
Anja	2	5	5	5	5	22
Steve	4	5	5	5	5	24

Hothouse Flowers

Not the kind of flower that grows out of the ground, but the kind that flows. Tonight’s name is in honour of three brave gamers who chose to play Manila twice! And also in honour of Joe's kitchen being quite warm

But tonight was a historic night for many reasons: Three new names on the leaderboard. Three games running concurrently! Seven games in total! And one retirement! And Fursty Ferret ale in a can! So many things never before seen.

It was also the first night of the Game Of The Month. Russian Railroads was given pride of place on its own table, with Joe, Martin, Sam and myself seated around it. On the other table, while they waited for Anja and Steve, they played Incan Gold. We four looked on with jealousy as they played out a game that was actually fun. Adam, Matt, Hannah and newbies Ian, James and Joe’s wife Charlotte set out to plunder five Incan temples. The first one of which was so evil that Adam wondered if the pack of cards was missing some treasure.

At the end, Adam won with Joe’s visiting friend James in last. He’d been introduced by Joe to the wonderful world of board games previously and he must’ve enjoyed Incan Gold, since he stuck around for the next game. Charlotte, however, could not be tempted. After coming fifth in a game she says she hates, she seemed only too glad when one of her daughters called down to her to watch some TV together.

Adam 39
Matt 34
Ian 34
Hannah 31
Charlotte 29
James 28

We ploughed on with Russian Railroads. Martin made an excellent start on the industries and looked to have the whole game sewn up after two rounds, with Sam languishing in last.

On the other table, they made the best of what space they had by splitting into two groups and playing Colosseum (Adam, James, Ian and Matt) and Manila (Steve, Hannah and Anja). Theatre larks and ship-gambling, right in front of me? It was almost as if they’d chosen those games to torture me.

But I’m being harsh to Russian Railroads. The fact is, I never really got going. I began by starting on all three railroads, but this game does not reward diversifying. Joe began to power away in round three, with Martin trying to keep up.

Joe was first to hit 100 points

Meanwhile the first game of Manila ended. We’d heard moans from Steve throughout. In particular, we all heard a very jaded “Well, that’s another shit round from me” from Steve at one point but at least he didn’t come last. Anja, Queen of Pirates, came out top by a significant margin.

Anja 127
Steve 70
Hannah 66

They enjoyed it so much (at least, Anja did) that they started on a second game. Also because it was clear that neither of the other games was about to end any time soon. In fact, this was so clear that James retired from the game of Colosseum.

We finished Russian Railroads, and saw that Sam very nearly used his multipliers to their best effect by rocketing up the scoretrack in the last two rounds. Not enough to overtake Joe, but a valiant effort.

Joe 377
Sam 363
Martin 329
Andrew 215

Joe pointed out that I’d won Russian Railroads on my first go, Sam had won it one his second go and Joe had won it on his third go. Indicating that Martin would win it on his fourth go. We shall see next week.

After all that thinking, we broke out Raj, just to show the other table that we knew how to have fun too! Oh, how we laughed as a three-way tie gave Martin a high-valued tile for next to nothing. How we gasped as the game began with Sam turning over four negative-value tiles. No point in going to detail, though. The anecdotes of Raj are very much of the “you had to be there” type.

Sam won convincingly. To give you an idea of how easy it was for him: In the final round, he came first with 34 and I was second with 6!

It was also notable as being the second game that evening when two players had tied on 34 points.

Sam 71
Martin 41
Joe 34
Andrew 34

Manila II and Colosseum still hadn’t finished, so we leapt into 6nimmt: The 20th anniversary edition! The came with “jokers”, in the form of decimal places that you always got to place first, either replacing a row, or adding to it, as you wished.

I still found it a frustrating and baffling game, but this time, I squeaked through for my first win at 6nimmt! There was some debate that we should finish the game properly (ie, once some gets 66 points) but Colosseum and Manila were both packing away after round three, so it seemed sensible to me to end. And I had suggested we finish after round two, when I wasn’t winning, so my conscience is clear.

Andrew 33
Martin 36
Sam 48
Joe 54

Colosseum finished like this:

Matt 82
Ian 73
Adam 62
James 25 (retired)

And the second game of Manila was a closer affair:

Hannah 86
Anja 83
Steve 78

After this, we set off, very grateful to Joe for his capacious hospitality. Twelve people in attendance. Thirteen if you include Hannah’s and Adam’s little meeple who is due any week now!

The form table has transformed after all this activity. Sam is still top, but Anja, Hannah and Matt all make great strides in an upwards direction.

						Points
Sam	3	1	2	1	1	8
Anja	2	1	2	3	2	10
Hannah	1	3	3	2	2	11
Steve	3	2	1	4	1	11
Matt	1	2	2	5	2	12
Gonz	2	3	1	2	4	12
Adam	3	1	1	4	3	12
Joe	4	3	1	3	1	12
Martin	2	2	3	4	2	13
Andrew	1	3	4	5	3	16
Ian	2	2	5	5	5	19
Will	3	2	5	5	5	20
James	4	5	5	5	5	24
Charlotte	4	5	5	5	5	24

Farewell Stabcon

Three years ago, Sam had the idea of going to Stabcon as a means of doing some research for a sitcom we were working on. This year, on Saturday evening, as we drove down dark country lanes following the tail lights of a famous games designer on our way to the pub, we realised we'd become that sitcom.

We (Sam, Joe, Adam and I) set off on Friday, keen and eager. We arrived after a pleasant drive, stopping off for food at a service station famous for its ducks. We didn't see any, though. However, once at the Britannia, early signs weren't good. Behind us in the queue to check in was a man who smelt quite strongly of piss. He made idle chat with us during a hold up at reception, and I held my breath and nodded non-committally.

We then set up in the hall, and started to play. Downfall of Pompeii was first, as it encourages back-stabbing and betrayal in a light-hearted and amusing way. We followed that up with a new game, Singapore, which is a lot of worker placement and resource conversion. Nice, but not earth-moving. Joe did manage to miss his mouth with a crisp twice in succession, though.

Downfall of Pompeii
Joe 9
Sam 8
Adam 7
Andrew 5

Early days, empty tables...

Singapore
Adam 79
Sam 74
Andrew 60
Joe 42

Then we thought perhaps we should mingle a bit, but time was getting on and we'd be going to eat soon. Adam played on the internet, because he was in the middle of a game and it's rude to keep people waiting.

Not ostracised, just playing Civ.

Joe taught Sam Elk Fest, a flicking game where your have to get your tiny wooden elk across the table on stepping stones. And then we played Biblios. We spiced it up by rolling the dice before we began, meaning each dice started with a random value. We play hard and fast in Stabcon.

Beer, butter and elks

Following that, we went to the carvery, and a very nice man found us a table while we stood at the bar and drank the beer made by (?) the band Elbow. During the meal, we discussed what we wanted to play next so when we got back to the Hotel, we were all geared up to play Africana. It was Adam's first attempt at this game which involves doing laps up and down Africa while picking up adventures and treasures along the way.

Africana
Andrew 41
Adam 38
Joe 36
Sam 34

Then we took another break and wandered around for a while. After that, Sam and Adam played Elk Fest while Joe taught me Traders of Carthage.

Then eleven o'clock rolled around and we thought it was too late to mingle, so we broke out the Tinners' Trail – a game we knew and loved. Halfway through, Cuz from Area 51 came over to see if we wanted to join in a game of The Resistance. We were too far in to stop, so we declined, and he seemed disappointed that we were only playing amongst ourselves.

Tin-mining in Joe's forehead? Anyone? It's quite dry . . .

Tinners' Trail
Sam 96
Adam 92
Andrew 75
Joe 66

That was the end of Friday. On Saturday, after breakfast, a shower and a shave I was walking towards the games hall when I met Sam who told me we were about to play test a new Martin Wallace game! This is what Stabcon is all about! I was very excited that we four humble gamers would be in on the ground floor of designing a game. The game, Northern Empires, is set in a mythical Britain where the humans battle each other, calling for help from elves, goblins, giants, etc and even help from other players.

Martin planned it as mostly a bidding game, but I like to think we added something with our plotting and bluffing. We certainly added to the running time, since Martin thought the first round was too long, and in the second round he removed a lot of the bidding and negotiation. It wasn't as much fun, and also there wasn't much reason to help each other unless you had nothing better to do with your troops. Some nice ideas, though, and Martin seemed happy that he'd learnt how to improve it.

Northern Empires
Joe 58
Adam 52
Martin 51
Sam 47
Andrew 41

After a quick bout of Elk Fest, Sam went off to do some paperwork from his job, and Adam, Joe and I proudly rolled out Joe's green felt Pax Porfiriana playing area and sat down to revolutionise Mexico! We got a few admiring glances, but we were mostly too busy trying to plough through Pax's dense forest of rules and text dressed up as a card game.

Sam came back, and we didn't seem to be anywhere near finishing. Adam tried to topple the government and I almost let him, but I couldn't just let him win because we were tired so I played a card to see off his revolt. Joe happily said "I think I can end this game!" The fact he said "end" instead of "win" gives a good idea of our priorities at that point. Shortly afterwards, Adam did win and we couldn't do anything to stop him even if we wanted to. And we didn't really.

How we felt after playing Pax Porfiriana

After two pretty full-on gaming experiences, my brain was frazzled. Certainly too tired to do any socialising. Instead we dug out Manila, the jolly game of betting and piracy, and followed that up with Arkadia. Joe thought that the theme was a bit tacked on, and it was really just an abstract game with a historical lick of paint.

Manila
Sam 142
Joe 138
Adam 108
Andrew 104

Arkadia
Adam 79
Andrew 73
Sam 72
Joe 56

After this was a series of quick two-player games, mostly against each other, with one other passer-by playing against Sam at Elk Fest. Joe taught me Battle for Hill 218, and Adam taught Sam Mr Jack in New York.

We also played what was, for me, the best new game of the Con (not that I played many), Hana-bi. In this game, each player had four cards held out so the others can see them. You are then allowed to give your fellow players information about what cards they have in their hands (either colour, or number, both not both at the same time). The idea is to lay down the hands in numerical order. It's quite a test of memory.

Joe successfully traded a green jelly baby for a Nurofen.

The reason for this sudden run of short games is because we were waiting to leave the hotel to have dinner with Martin Wallace. He really wanted to speak to Joe about some work he may have, but the rest of us managed to be invited too. He said he knew a nice gastro-pub near here, and that's why the four of us were heading down unfamiliar roads following a man in his car just because he designed games.

The pub he had in mind was too full, but the pub across the road wasn't, and luckily the food there was pretty good. We discussed games and no one said anything crass or embarrassing, so all in all a very nice evening. Martin then went home, so we relied on Adam's GPS to get us back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we played Railways of Mexico, where I eschewed the more sensible tactic of short tracks bringing in quick profit and instead went up to my eyeballs in debt building a cross-mountain railway because it looked nice. Meanwhile, the tense rivalry between Joe and Adam concerning this game continued unabated.

Railways of Mexico
Adam 47
Joe 46
Sam 27
Andrew 22

We ended the day with Hana-bi, using the tone of our voices to indicate if a card was good or bad and, my, what acting skills we have! Didn't complete it, though. Then we played Biblios and No Thanks and went to bed.

Sunday morning rolled around and Joe and I were up nice and early. While we had breakfast, Joe dropped a bombshell. He and Adam hadn't gone to bed at 12.30 like Sam and I. Instead they tried the two-player version of Le Harve, thinking it was a quickish half-hour simplified version of the 3+ player version. But it took them up until two o'clock to finish and Joe didn't seem keen on repeating the experience.

After breakfast we found ourselves in a deserted games hall. We played some Traders of Carthage, and Sam and Adam, when they arrived, battled again over Elk Fest. Then Joe got invited to play Pax Porfiriana with Martin Wallace and a couple of others. Adam, Sam and I rather cruelly chose a game to try and make Joe jealous, so we broke out Brass. With departure time in a couple of hours, this would be our last game of the Con.

Adam gave Sam a quick refresher of the rules which extended quite a long way into the game, and I think everyone consulted the rule book a couple of times during the game. I decided this was to be my last try on the Shipyard tactic, and I really went for it, building three and selling a fair amount of cotton to ports, too. Did no good.

Brass
Adam 205
Sam 164
Andrew 161


After we finished, and Joe came back from playing Pax, we packed up since we were already behind our schedule. Once back in the car, we mused thoughtfully about our lack of socialising. While it was nice to play so many games, if we weren't going to mingle, there really was no point in driving all the way to a hotel in Stockport to do it. Perhaps it was simply too close to the festive season this year. After festivities with families and friends, did we really need more festivities? And the level of nerdiness seemed a little higher than usual. Joe told me how twice he'd said "hello" to people and they'd just stared back at him.

While games conventions are great, we may have to reconsider next year's trip. If we're being honest, the timing's wrong, the location's wrong and I don't like the carpet. Perhaps we will feel different next year. We shall see.

The final Olympic style leaderboard includes all the little games we played, and it's hat's off to Adam, who came top of the pile!

	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Adam	9	5	2
Sam	5	9	3
Joe	5	7	2
Andrew	4	3	4

Guten Tag, Hab unt Gut

Perhaps jealous of our nine-hour game binge this weekend, Joe suggested we meet at his place for a little pre-games night gaming. Perhaps unsatisfied by our nine-hour game binge this weekend, Sam and I agreed.

It was just the three of us. We began with Hab unt Gut, a game set the exciting world of the German stock exchange. In this game, one has to buy and sell shares to make the most money, but beware! Are you bewaring? Good, because you also have to donate money to the church. The player who donates least automatically loses, no matter how much money they have. Of course, donating to the church lessens your overall score, so it's a delicate balancing act between cold-hearted greed and trying to buy your way into heaven.

In the end, Joe miscalculated how much he needed to donate and game in last, giving Sam and I first and second respectively.

Sam 655
Andrew 525
Joe OUT! (but for the record, he had 1,160)

Next to the table was Manila. Another game involving the value of goods, but this is more to do with the black market and a bit of pirating. At one point Joe was almost broke and only had two shares in front of him. It looked like another bleak evening for this season's kicking boy.

But then, a miracle occurred! Joe's pirates got hold of a ship and netted him a handsome return. Suddenly, he was Mr Moneybags, and Sam and I were the ones facing a stint in the poorhouse. We never recovered from that, and Joe made his advantage count, running out as the winner in a close game.

Joe 77
Sam 72
Andrew 68

The night was still young (about half past ten) so a quick game of No Thanks was suggested. This game of bluff, risk-taking, and counting is always a favourite.

I was a bit thrown by Sam and Joe making noises of disgust whenever I sent a card I wanted round the table to pick up more chips. They seemed to think it was ungentlemanly. Not that it made much difference.

Joe 37
Andrew 57
Sam 62

We went for one more game of No Thanks, and the pattern was pretty much repeated. Cards we wanted never turned up or were taken by other players. 32, especially, was noted for it's absence in both games. Especially by Sam.

Joe 59
Andrew 75
Sam 84

A sterling performance by Joe, hurling himself up the form table.

						Points
Adam	1	1	2	1	1	6
Andrew	2	2	3	2	3	9
Joe	1	1	1	3	4	10
Hannah	2	1	2	3	2	10
Steve	1	2	1	2	5	11
Sam	3	3	2	1	3	12
Anja	2	2	1	4	5	14

Manila Dice

Only a few days after we descended on Adam and Hannah's place, we return to their house for another games night. At first, there were five of us: Joe, Sam and myself as well as our two generous hosts. While we waited for the arrival of Anja and Steve, Joe treated us to a game of Wizard; a game he'd bought on a recent trip to Germany where the streets are lined with games shops and people play board games on trains.

Unfortunately, the non-English rules meant that we couldn't really play it properly. It is very similar to Contract Whist with a couple of extra types of cards, so whenever we were unsure about a rule we always found ourselves using the rules from Whist. In short, we were playing Contract Whist. And, as with Tichu, I am not keen on games which are based on already popular games and, frankly, while playing Whist I've never thought it could be improved with a few giants and dwarves.

We ended when Steve and Anja arrived and split into two groups. Sam, Anja, Steve and Joe went for Lords of Waterdeep, while Adam, Hannah and myself chose Manila. We went into the front room, and reacquainted ourselves with the rules. We also tried to remember where we went wrong last time, and decided that we'd all bid too low for the Harbour Master.

As such, the bidding was fast and furious from the beginning. But the real decisive aspect of the game were Adam's nemeses: dice. They took real delight in leaving his boats becalmed at the harbour mouth, or landing in the lap of a pirate or two. Unless he was the pirate, in which case they'd glide by serenely. In the end, I think that mine and Hannah's successful pirating helped, with Hannah winning with a strategy of hardly ever being the Harbour Master.

Hannah 196
Andrew 175
Adam 121

Maybe we paid too much to be the Harbour Master...

Then we rejoined the other group in time to watch the final round of Lords of Waterdeep. Joe was in a clear lead, and couldn't contain his satisfaction. Sam was in last place, bemoaning his fate of owning another game he liked but was bad at. Steve and Anja fought for second place like tigers (playing a board game).

I'll leave it for them to explain the cries of anguish/victory that we heard through the walls while we played Manila. Meanwhile, the scores were...

Joe 128
Steve 114
Anja 109
Sam 104

Then we decided on a last game with all of us together. We chose 6nimmt as the only one that could accommodate all seven of us, and we began. Although the game almost came to a premature end, as halfway through Steve innocently asked if he was supposed to have just one card left.

No one could work out what had happened, but I'm willing to bet that Joe's bottle of 6%+ ale had affected his dealing. Steve was given enough cards to fill his hand, and we continued. 6nimmt is a hard game to get a hold of. I was constantly undone by people choosing to take the row of cards that I was going to add to. In one go, I simply shuffled my hand and chose a card at random. Didn't do too badly, either. But I guess we all have our sob stories. Adam, though, squeezed into first after two almost clear rounds and an abysmal final round.

Adam 29
Steve 33
Andrew 42
Hannah 43
Anja 50
Joe 55
Sam 62

An excellent evening of high drama concerning quests, intrigue, betting and Pringles. Thanks for hosting, Adam and Hannah.

No change on the Form Table, except for Sam's precipitous drop. Oh well, there's still time to turn that round. Or, failing that, there's always next season.

						Points
Steve	2	2	2	1	2	9
Hannah	4	1	1	3	1	10
Adam	1	3	2	1	4	11
Andrew	3	2	3	2	2	12
Joe	6	1	1	1	3	12
Anja	5	3	4	3	3	18
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jonny	2	2	5	5	5	19
Paul	3	1	5	5	5	19
Sam	7	4	4	1	3	19
Sally	3	5	5	5	5	23

Gamers on the freeway, destination unknown

Tonight, a last minute call for an evening's entertainment went out, but where? Sam couldn't host, so maybe Joe could. Then Joe said he might not be able to but equally he might, so Adam stepped forward. But then Adam couldn't get hold of Hannah to clear it with her, so the ball was back in Joe's park. In the end, me and Sam were driving down the legendary Ashley Down Road, and we still weren't sure where we were headed. "We don't know where we're going, we only know where we've been" as the song goes.

We soon learnt that we were going to Joe's. Stopping at the off licence beforehand, of course.

So five of us: myself, Sam, Hannah, Adam and Joe convened around Joe's kitchen table. We chose a new game: Manila. Well, it sort of chose itself. First, I got the board out to see how it looked. Then Joe explained the rules so after all that we thought we may as well play it.

It's a neat game of betting on a number of events in the game. How many (of the three) ships will successfully come into harbour; which of the ships will make it; which won't; will any land on space thirteen (and get plundered by pirates) and so on. On top of all this, there's money to be made on successfully transported goods, and on holding shares in frequently transported goods.

It's very simple, but it did need quite a lot of reference to the rules which weren't always as clear as we wanted. But we came up with a couple of impromptu house rules, and the game carried on without a hitch. And also, if a player runs out of money, they can bring in some cash by choosing to encumber a share. Not a wise move, tactically, but it's a lot of fun to say "encumber".

I found it very interesting. Perhaps not at its best with five players, since by the end of the round the choices available were pretty limited. However, this was balanced by the chance to bid money to be The Harbour Master, which gave you the chance to buy shares and – most importantly – place your pieces first.

It is a clever game with plenty going on. I was the only player to successfully grab a ship using pirates, and I think that was the vital factor in my win.

Andrew 139
Adam 109
Sam 98
Joe 82
Hannah 52

After this Hannah decided she had to go. However while Joe, Sam and I decided what game we could play to finish the evening, she must have been swayed by the cornucopia of delights we were considering since she then decided that perhaps she could stay for one more. We chose Incan Gold, our new favourite game of stealing precious artefacts from dead civilizations.

It also demonstrated Sam's new-found psychokinetic abilities. In the first round of the game, he was able to call forth zombie ladies at will. Unfortunately he did so well, that he ended the round too soon and everyone lost their treasure.

It was a low scoring game, with bad things usually coming in pairs. As it was Sam and I were quickest on our feet in the face of any potential danger, and it went down to a tie-breaker (number of artefacts) to decide the winner.

Andrew 17 (+ 1 artefact)
Sam 17
Hannah 13
Adam 12
Joe 8

Although I should thank Adam for pointing out that I had 17 points, not 12 as I had stated. I think I was a bit drunker than I thought. I suspicion I later confirmed to myself when I got home and tried to swat a moth on the ceiling, almost falling off my bed in the process. But drunk or not, I rise back to the top of the Form Table.

						Points
Andrew	1	1	3	1	3	9
Adam	4	2	1	2	1	10
Steve	1	2	2	1	5	11
Sam	2	3	3	2	2	12
Hannah	3	5	1	1	3	13
Anja	2	5	2	2	4	15
Joe	5	4	2	3	2	16
Quentin	1	3	5	5	5	19
Jonny	2	2	5	5	5	19
Sally	3	5	5	5	5	23

Welsh Rare Bits

For the first week of the Easter holidays, Charlotte, the girls and I went to Wales with old friends Rachel and Henry and their three daughters. Both R and H are keen gamers, and Charlotte will happily play a game in the evening, so while I was sure that Henry and I would find lots to get stuck into between days on the beach, long walks and cooking, I was interested to see which games would be hits and misses for the four of us.

We took a bevvy of two-player games, including Hansa, Manoeuvre, Commands and Colours: Ancients, and the big daddy, Twilight Struggle. The first game Henry and I broke out on arriving at the cottage near Pembroke was Manoeuvre. It's a game of Napoleonic-era battles, players assuming control of one of eight available armies, ranging from French, English, Ottoman all the way to the United States. Each army has eight units to go on the board, typically 6 infantry and 2 cavalry units, and a dedicated deck of small cards with which to battle and issue orders. The gameplay is simple; discard and draw cards, move one unit, attack with one unit.

A total rout by the French. Marvellous.

The typical attack by a single unit is very unlikely to eliminate its target, merely flip it to its weaker side, and next turn your opponent may well be able to restore it. So you really need to try and plan attacks so that you can add cards from your hand to strengthen the attack, possibly bringing in more units, leaders etc. The game plays in about 40 minutes once you know what you're doing, and is great fun. We tried out a few of the different arrmies - and each has it's innate strengths and weaknesses.

D6s, D8s and cartoon beer. Mmmm . . .

In the evenings, Charlotte and Rachel joined us. For the first couple of nights, the main event was a few rounds of Pickomino, which works brilliantly as a casual game with four - the perfect combination of push-your-luck, nicking each others tiles and not quite knowing who's winning until the final tally. It also allows for a lot of chatting in-between goes, which is certainly a plus as far as Charlotte is concerned.

Grubby dice. Unacceptable.

The first big game we all tried was Manila, which I got in the Euro Maths Trade the week before we went away. Though some of the mechanics (auction, worker-placement, a smattering of share-manipulation) are very familiar, it's nicely different from lots of the other games we play, definitely has its own niche, and plays in under an hour. It's essentially a game where you're playing the odds and betting on which boats will make it ashore and which will end up in the shipyard. It didn't quite catch fire for the four of us - though I can imagine it going down well with the GNN-ers.

We also played London, which is a favourite of Rachel and Henry's - it doesn't quite do it for me, and had a suspicion that it wouldn't be Charlotte's kind of game either, which turned out to be right. It's a game you really need to play a few times to get your head around and develop a strategy - there's simply no way a new player can hope to keep up, which can be dispiriting enough to put you off for good. I had played a couple of times with R & H before, and with Sam, enough to have a grasp of what to do, though that still put me in a distant third place. I can't quite put my finger on why it doesn't grab me; it's something to do with the complexity of the way city-size/boroughs/poverty/money formulae interact - it remains just a little too opaque for me to be enjoyable, though I can imagine getting into it as a 2 player over a few successive nights and finding it satisfying. I think it lacks the elusive 'fun' factor for me.

Another of our 2-player daytime staples was Hansa - a very stripped down Euro about trading in the Hanseatic League (not to be confused with recent GNN newbie Hansa Teutonica). In a way, it's similar to London in that the various components are symbiotically linked: money allows movement and buying of goods; goods allow placement of markets; markets allow conversion of goods into VPs, and get you more money. It's all wrapped up in a very pretty, refined package, and plays in about 20/30 mins. It can be played with four, but loses a lot of the strategy, I've heard.

Hansa by firelight.

As well as London, Henry had brought Ora et Labora with him, the latest big game by Uwe Rosenberg. Having bought it during last half-term, he and Rachel had not got round to playing it, despite a couple of attempts - on opening the box I could see why. If the number and variety of resources and playing boards weren't terrifying enough, the combined rulebooks, covering set-up, general rules, specifics and a multi-page glossary of buildings are positively fearsome. We decided not to attempt this with the women, at least not without a thorough playthrough between the two of us, and so we tackled it on a grey afternoon.
As it turns out, there was little to fear, and lots to enjoy. The rulebooks, if taken in the correct order, have you set up and playing within 20 minutes, and we found we could happily ignore at least half of them.
It is very much in the vein of Agricola, with players building up their monastery in either Ireland or France, felling forests, clearing peat bogs, brewing beer/making wine and gradually amassing victory points. It is apparently closer to Le Havre than Agricola, though graphically it definitely takes its cue from the earlier Rosenberg game. It took us a couple of hours to play, and at the end I was a little bit underwhelmed - it's very wide-open compared to Agricola, and consequently felt a bit flabby. In Agricola, you're operating at the bleeding-edge of subsistence, and every action counts. The world of O & L feels altogether more of a cornucopia, and whilst there are clearly strategic paths aplenty to amassing VPs in bulk, the fact that they are floating around from the very beginning and relatively easy to come by makes it feel less focussed. However, though we didn't manage to get it to the table again during the week, something about it has stayed with me; building your little cloister into a vast, all-encompassing monastery; brewing fine beer and distilling barrels of Irish Whisky, all wrapped-up in the cosy, inviting Agricola-esque hues. I want another go, and if any GNNers have their eye on a new game, I'll happily play it (not buying any more games, see?)

On wednesday evening, the four of us got to Lords of Vegas. I had my concerns, especially since the 'gambling' aspects of Manila had been a bit of a damp squib, and I couldn't remember quite how straightforward the mechanics of LoV were. As it turned out, it was a perfect fit - tense, exciting reversals-of-fortune, enthusiastic dice-rolling and a close finish with Rachel (I think) eeking a win against Henry. Henry particularly took to the risk-reward spirit of it, at one point betting $25 million on a single roll in Rachel's casino in a bid to scupper her plans. He lost.

Lords of Vegas: busy board, busy tablecloth.

We played again on thursday night, and it was even better, and closer, me edging in to first place on the final strip pay-out by virtue of my newly-acquired four tile casino. It was more coherent than when we played it at GNN, and I think we should give it another go. There are subtle strategies for staying in the game in the face of what seems like a runaway leader, which may have eluded us on the two outings we've given it.
On Friday night, we played Catan for old times sake, and R & H cleaned up, Rachel eventually squeaking the win from Henry, Charlotte and I languishing 3rd and fourth.

Ah, the familiar coastline of Catan. With an off-shore stockpile of cities.

Back on the two-player front, Henry and I had dabbled in a bit of Commands and Colours: Ancients, which felt a wee bit fiddly compared with the ultra-streamlined Manoeuvre, though with a more epic, majestic sweep, and probably a bit more depth. We'd also played a few games of Igloo Pop with the older daughters, and they played a few games of Alhambra and Mr Jack amongst themselves. We also played 6 player Shadow Hunters, though that was a bit unsatisfying - four of the six players won . . .

And in amongst it all, Henry and I found time to take on not one, not two, but three games of Twilight Struggle. We got to it a couple of days in to the holiday; Henry had hankering for a game since their last visit to us in September 2011, when I had just received it in a Maths Trade (we took one look at the rules back then and put it away). Since then I've only played it twice, so we were both eager to explore its intricacies.

In actual fact, we found it to be nowhere near as daunting as its reputation might suggest, especially since, on advice gleaned from Ryan Sturm's most recent How to Play, we all but ignored realignment rolls, further streamlining the learning curve. It is an awesome game, and we found that the game lasted longer, getting to later rounds without an outright winner, the more familiar we got with the cards and strategies. That said, Russia won all three games, though Henry, determined to break the Soviet stranglehold, put up a valiant fight in the last game (and enjoyed getting to prod me in the chest as he played the Kitchen Debates). And it's not stupidly long - all three of our games lasted between two and a half and three hours; though none lasted beyond turn six - an epic struggle that went the full ten rounds could last four, even five hours. In that sense it bucks the general trend, in that the better both players know the game, the longer it will take.

All in all an awesome week of gaming, perfectly intertwined with a very lovely week away, thanks to Henry and Rachel and their delightful girls. Roll on the new season of GNN, my loins are girded!
JB