Just the pax, ma'am

A little note to mark yet another game of Pax Pamir on Thursday, the third in three days for GNN and the fourth in four for Sam if you include his solo walk through. This kind of ardent adoration for a game hasn't been seen since... Well, since Orbit, about a month ago.

But Orbit is a pussy cat compared to Pax's wave of rules, trimmed down from the first edition but still a hefty amount to take on board. As three Afghan war lords, Sam, Martin and I placed armies, built roads and sent spies out so that we could gain influence.

We started all loyal to the Russian forces, but I broke ranks first, cosying up to British before too long. Sam picked up a tableau of purple cards since they increase the size of your tableau and also, since the favoured suit was purple, he had a range of free actions to supplement his two free ones.

The first scoring card came out and, thanks to a little luck, a second one followed it which meant an immediate dominance check before Martin could change things in his favour.

Sam was sitting pretty despite our attempts to change the favoured suit away from purple. Martin decided to swap hands with Sam, only to realise he'd given him a card that'd let Sam switch the favoured suit back to purple. And if that weren't enough, another dominance card came out and cash-rich Sam was able to snap it up and score big. He won by being so far ahead that the end of the game was triggered.

I didn't note the scores, but I had no points at all. I'd spent the evening trying things out and not really obsessing over tactics but even I had moments of AP when the cards available all seemed equally good. Or interesting.

After this we played Metropolys, a game rarely seen but was perfectly suited to end the game. Take control of city regions by bidding for them with incrementally higher tower blocks.

Sam was quick to put down plenty of blocks while Martin held back his most powerful for the big moves. I was pleased with my clever move which allowed me to surround a lamp post (one of my secret criteria - I suppose this is important to civil engineers) by creating a dead end that I could bid for and win immediately. But Martin won even if he was so obvious with his moves that Sam and I worked out both of his secret criteria mid game.

Martin 25 ish
Andrew approx 20
Sam 15 more or less

And we were done! At a reasonable hour, too. An evening of two games I'd like to revisit soon.

An Acquired Taste

I’ll be honest, I almost didn’t make it tonight. I was tired and I wasn’t giving anyone a lift, so I was tempted to bow out. However, I wanted to see Martin’s new place, because it was his first time hosting. I got there a bit late though, so I suppose I missed the opening ceremonies, the cutting of the ribbon and the Reiner Knizia shaped cake.

Anyway, I was thrown headlong into a game of Pairs. I missed the first two rounds, but that was a mere technicality to Martin who dealt me in just as I was sitting down.

Around the table were: Sam, Katy, Martin, Hannah, Andy, Joe, Matt, Ian and myself. Pairs was its usual self, handing out the cruelest of defeats to the most undeserving of people. Joe was singled out for some particularly bad luck, as he was dealt two peaches in one round to send him out without dignity or honour.

Matt 24
Hannah 22
Ian 21
Sam 16
Katy 16
Martin 12
Andy 9
Joe 8
Andrew 6

I did think about leaving myself off the results since it’d damage my points ratio on the division, but then I thought differently. After all, if we let the division rule our gaming, then we just reduce ourselves to the levels of animals.

Not sure what animal plays board games and cares about spreadsheets, though. Possibly an okapi.

Then we discussed which games we should play. During this, we were treated to a display of Andy’s magical game sack, where Joe mentions a desire to play a really obscure game that no one had heard of, and then Andy says “I just happen to have it here!” and pulls it out of his bag of games. The game in question was Midnight Party. It looks rather good. Why didn’t we play it?

Unfortunately, Andy's Magical Game Sack only worked once.

Eventually, we split into two groups. Hannah was enticed down to our end of the table with Atlantis, and it’s fairly short playing time. Her plan for the evening was to swap halfway through and let Adam join in while she took over baby duties.

So Ian, Hannah, Sam and I set up Atlantis. Katy wanted to join in too, until the saw the game, remembered that she didn’t like it and joined the rest of the group for a game of Acquire (Joe had brought Caverna, but Martin insisted it wouldn’t fit on the table).

I don’t know what kind of game Acquire is. There was a sort of plastic bingo card where players put black tiles with letters on. Then they’d buy shares, or curse at each other for buying shares. And then Andy won.

Andy 47,000
Matt 43,000
Joe 31,900
Katy 29,000
Martin 22,500

Meanwhile on Atlantis, any initial similarity to That’s Life goes pretty quickly, replaced by a slow thinky game of trying to maximise limited resources. Guide you meeples from the sinking land of Atlantis to the mainland, picking up points as you go, and leaving water behind if you do.

Ian 21
Andrew 17
Sam 11
Hannah 6

I’m not sure what to make of it. I went from thinking it was quite exciting to thinking the game was far longer than it needed to be. There seemed to be a lot of down time. Perhaps that was just us, I don’t know. I’d need to play it again.

Hannah set off home, with Adam replacing her after a short time. While he walked the short distance from his house to Martin’s, we set up a game of Metropolys. This game if bidding and (a bit of) bluffing is fairly new to me, but I was the one who’d played it most recently so I had to explain the rules to Adam. I think I did okay. Adam did ask to see the rules halfway through, but he always does that: he knows it scares us.

Towards the end of the game, Adam had just one building left to place and therefore end the game. Although it was a fairly good one, he hung onto it, perhaps hoping for a better bet next turn. He waited too long, though, as Ian got all his buildings down and notched up his second win of the evening.

Ian 37
Adam 35
Andrew 29
Sam 27

In the meanwhile, the other half of the table had played a couple of rounds of Go Stop. I haven’t had a chance to look at the Japanese rules yet, but it looks like Martin’s got a firm grip of what to do. He asked Sarah to join them to make it a six-player game, and she and Martin both won one round each before they decided to try something else: Deep Sea Adventure.

This game of comedy drowning (or not) has been a big hit since its introduction on the NSPCC day, and so it was again. And Katy didn’t come last this time.

Andy 43
Katy 40
Sarah 37
Joe 35
Martin 33
Matt 25

I left during this game, after we’d finished Metropolys, even more tired after two quite thinky games. The last three of our half of the table stuck around for one final game of No Thanks!

Adam 36
Ian 73
Sam 83

A lovely evening, and it’s great to have a new venue on the map. Katy was so pleased with the way the evening went, she even sent an email out to everyone thanking us. This lead to a veritable e-group hug amongst the GNN regulars. Bless us, one and all!

Ian, meanwhile, stays top of the Division on points, but he loses points ratio to Andy. Martin keeps control of the medal table.

Three is definitely not a crowd

Tuesday games night was a sparse affair. Half-term usually makes some kind of dent in that levels of attendance, but this week we were down to levels low enough that even I and my five chairs could host.

There was myself, Andy and Martin. With just three of us, any discussion regarding what game to play was cut short with the idea that we all choose one. My choice was Metropolys, a new game to me, but one that seemed interesting enough.

And I was right. It’s a simple, yet deep bidding game. Everyone has the same bidding tokens of 1-13 to try and win areas of the map, but each player has their own objectives and, additionally, placing a valid bid in an area which is a dead end immediately wins you that area (since each bid must be placed in an adjacent area).

This means that Martin’s tactic of biding his time until the end gave him a sudden push up the score chart.

Martin 43
Andy 31
Andrew 23

And Martin pointed out that during that game, he didn’t destroy a single archaeological site. “A lesson there for us all, I think,” he summarised. But I really enjoyed Metropolys. Given how simple the rules are, there are depths beneath depths here.

But Martin’s sensitive side did not last long. His choice of the evening was Impulse, and it was to be a battle-scarred game. Andy needed a quick rule refresher, as he hadn’t played for some time. For someone who didn’t like the game, he shot off into an early lead. Mostly thanks to Martin unsuccessfully attacking him.

I did an unthinkable thing: I retreated. Unsure of the intentions of Martin’s fleet of cruisers, I cowered in the corner until I was sure that the other two had weakened each other enough. Then I pounced. I ploughed into the middle of the board, reducing Martin to a single transporter. But even that is enough for Martin, and with his next turn he built up his forces and flew back into attack.

But Andy was too far ahead to be defeated. Even with a depleted army, he did enough to get to the twentieth point before too long, and I was quietly satisfied with my second place.

Andy 20
Andrew 15
Martin 10

Finally, Andy’s choice was Istanbul. We went for a random set up, and at first I felt a familiar sinking feeling as Andy and Martin picked up some early gems while I had none. But I hung around mosques and markets and before long I was able to swoop on the gem dealer twice in a row to tie the game on four gems all.

Martin needed a lucky roll at the Tea house to get enough cash to get his last gem on his next turn. He didn’t get it. Andy got enough money from the market so he was poised for the win. But they didn’t reckon with me. Even after buying two gems, I still had enough cash to get to the wainwright and grab the fifth gem. I picked up three gems in two moves for a remarkable comeback, even if I do say so myself.

Andrew 5
Andy 4 plus cash
Martin 4

And that was that. A quiet Tuesday... apart from all the bidding, battling, trading and gambling.

I had a Faaarm in Africaaa

The threat of a gaming drought abated, and despite Sam and Andrew defecting to Bracknell for the night, we managed a quartet of gamers around the table at mine; Martin, Ian, Matt and me (Joe).

Martin brought Metropolys, a simple and quite pretty auction game, where players bid for occupation of areas of a city. At the end of the game, players will score points for occupying areas corresponding to the colour of their secret objective card, and fulfilling conditions on another secret objective card can give them even more points.

Martin schooled us in the rules, and once we started playing he schooled us in the tactics, biding his time and then snaffling lots of cheap areas. He did say there were other ways of playing, but it was a pretty effective strategy.

It has similarities to a trick-taking game, in that you will only lead an auction by winning the previous one, so timing is all. Certainly the kind of game you need to play more than once, but I rarely want to jump straight back in to a new game - I usually find I need a night's sleep to assimilate the experience and wake up deciding I'd like to give it another crack.

Martin 45
Ian 29
Joe 22
Matt 21

Next up was Africana, which has been waiting in the wings for a while. Sam, Andrew and I have played a fair bit of three player, and we may, with Adam, have played a four player game, I can't remember. It was new to all but me, but it's fairly straightforward to get your head around.

One easy-to-forget rule is that you can pay 5 coins to change the colour of a card - in fact the first few times we played we didn't even know of this rule. It was certainly put to use last night, Ian in particular eschewing the book of adventures, at least early on, instead spending money to get where he needed to go. And it seemed to work, as he racked up a healthy pile of expeditions.
Martin cursed his hand of purples, and spent a few turns hanging around in Cairo waiting for the stars to align. He and I both made use of extra assistants, his, ironically enough, being purple. Matt lived up to his unlit pony moniker, and kept his cards close to his chest.

In the end, we all did a bit of everything, and the last turns slowed down a little as everyone worked out how to squeeze a final few points from their explorations. As we totted up, I was hopeful that my set of three masks worth 12 points would propel me into first, but it was not to be. Matt had accrued a startling number of expeditions, and a set of four different artefacts for 10 points sealed the deal. Ian's pile of expeditions didn't look so strong after that, but his adventure cards boosted him into second place by a whisker. And Martin had dallied too long in Cairo - he may even have eaten a bad date or two - securing fourth place.

Matt 47
Ian 37
Joe 35
Martin 28

Martin noted that it is an extremely tactical game in that you are only really responding to what happens on your turn. As with other such games, lower player counts tend to work best as they minimise the amount of change between turns. I agree, though often games that fall into that category feel very chaotic with higher player counts, and I don't think Africana is a chaotic game. It's opportunistic - and the opportunities you were hoping to exploit may have disappeared by the time your turn comes around, but you can quickly assess the new ones and, hopefully, form a coherent plan.

I particularly like to the way you can over-reach, setting off for a destination that you'll only get to if the card you pick up en-route allows you to cover that last link. It worked for me last night at least three times; it is admittedly less fun when it repeatedly doesn't pay off.


We still had time for a bit of Love Letter, and decided to play best of three. I'm starting to see the point of this little game - despite it's lightness each round suggests new strategic possibilities. Most of which I realised after the event.

Matt took his second win of the evening, and we called it a night. Thanks chaps - look forward to hearing all about the Bracknell breakaway.