The Seven Commandments

There was at one stage nine of us last night at Anja and Steve's house, although the ongoing pipe-based escapades of their particular street meant we were never actually all at the table at the same time. Such is life when, like Steve, you plumb in the moonlight. 

But we began as an eight. Whilst Anja was getting Lennon settled, the assembled ranks of gamers placed their wagers on Hot Streak. With the full complement we elected to eschew the drafting and play the 'secret betting' variant, where you simply choose a racer to back based on the cards, and most also go with your hunch on a side-bet. There's a little less control in a game with minimal control already, but it plays nice and rapid. 

As is the way with Hot Streak, there is no official winner - the rulebook foretells your future instead - but unofficially this was Pete's game: he ended with $38 ahead of Joe's $28, with the rest of us dismally arrayed between 8 and 15. 

We split into two groups with Martin and Joe introducing 2 Win to Louie and Ian whilst the rest of us played the simple-yet-inscrutable dnup. 

Having already played 2 Win I can give a brief précis. Each round players choose two cards to play as a number, with the significant caveat that it must be higher than their last one (-your first number can be anything, but you want it to be reasonably low). If you play the highest number, you get a card from the deck. If you play the most stars - these pop up on some numbers - you also get a card. And you get a card in another way I can't be bothered to explain here. However you get 'em, cards are good because the winner of 2 Win is the last one standing: as your cards run out you either don't have enough or, more likely, your numbers are too low. 

from earlier

Joe won this, with Louie second and Martin and Ian first out. Meantime Steve was unscrambling dnup's inscrutability with some success, picking up a win in just three rounds despite asking what the rules were during the second one. 

The 2 Win gang had now subbed Louie out for Anja and set up Martin's new trick-taker Master Makatsu, so we moved on to Mykerinos, my new second-hand classic of the Beige Games Era. However at this point - I missed how it happened - Steve was called away to plumb. Being unsure how long he'd be, Adam suggested we play dnup again, and won just in time for Steve's return. We'd fleetingly seen him covered in water as he passed through the house like Super Mario, but now he was back and dry and ready to dig for artifacts. 

In Mykerinos then we send archeologists out to dig in order to claim cards at the end of the round via area majority: first place gets first choice, second gets whatever's left over. The cards you harvest will score points at the end of the game: exactly how much depends on what rooms you're able to reserve in the museum back home: you can sacrifice a card to take the reserve action instead. 

dig

the museum

The catch with the digs is that there's limited space and players get in each other's way. Mykerinos also does not like you branching off from your digs, so you can only extend them from either end, with up to two cubes. Or you can start a new dig anywhere with one cube. Or you can pass and keep cubes back, or you can call on a Patron. 

from earlier

Claimed cards, as well as being your points, also flip over and become special-move-endowing patrons, something Adam put to good use as he used Lady Violet to continuously claim extra cubes from the supply in a limited economy. Despite my earlier reservations and ousting of Pete for shared card objectives, it was enough to give him a victory on a tiebreaker: cubes left over. Steve's strategy of asking what the rules are halfway through served him less well here than in dnup.

Adam 51 + two cubes

Sam 51 + no cubes

Pete 40

Steve 27

Whilst all that was happening, Ian had won Master Makatsu (points are bad) 

Ian 14

Martin 15

Anja 16

Joe 18

And I know little of it despite Martin explaining the rules to me in the car on the way home. That was almost twelve hours ago now and things have changed. I do know that Ian followed this with another win in Mille Fiori, staging some kind of epic comeback from the mid-game doldrums. 

Ian 203

Anja 184

Martin 182

Joe 161

And now, as the room vibrated to the sound of Molly's snoring...

Adam left for home. Anja suggested So Clover, but we realised nobody had So Clover with them. Then Pete said it might be in his car - in case of breakdowns I suppose - but with demurring voices Adam and Katy not present we realised we could play Triangulation, and broke into teams. And what a game it was. 

I kicked things off in moronic style with The Ten Commandments. Not only did I confuse the commandments with the deadly sins but I wrote 'ten' as one of my clues, thinking Ha ha, there are ten of them to myself. Dumb as a bag of spanners, leaving teammates Joe Ian and Steve at a loss.

Because we failed in round one, I cost us a point. But then I redemptively suggested Big Bird from Martin's large and yellow and it proved correct! We just about got Disneyland after Pete's gracious giveaway that we were close, and Joe twigged that Steve's clues were about Zoolander. 

Anja's team successfully got IKEA and then we failed to grasp Ian's clues for Tim Burton (though Joe's idea of Beetlejuice got us very close!). Down to the final round and we flipped over Martin's DC and five, initially making us think of comic superheroes before I wonder if the Pentagon was in Washington. Ian thought it was, and we intercepted for the win! 

In a quirk of fate Martin realised that - having intercepted Joe's launderette and blue for Levis - their team would have won if he'd written his clues a little slower and they'd have gotten to guess first. Crazy. 

But now the hour was past 11pm and so we wrapped up another week. 

Mille Fury

With a multitude of people unable to make Tuesday games for various reasons, including being elsewhere in the country or watching the football, it was a relatively small attendance. With Anja and Steve volunteering to host, Martin and I (Ian) headed up the short distance up the Bristol-Bath Railway path - there was a moment where it looked like we might have a fifth attendee as Adam cycled past, but he was on his way to watch the aforementioned football. Still, 4 is a fine number for games.

When we arrived though, Anja was settling Lennon to bed, and Louis, having recently turned into an actual teenager, was too busy with email admin relating to his VR headset to play stuffy old boardgames, so we were temporarily a three. Martin, Steve and I played Jungo first – classic Jungo rules, not the Hachi Train variant. Fate smiled on me as I had some very lucky cards and after picking up some played cards was able to play 7 ones in a single turn. My luck meant I reached the winning condition of 2 fairly swiftly.

Ian – 2

Martin – 0

Steve – 0

We then played an edition of Timeline – I can’t recall the exact theme, but it just seemed to be “events”, but again fate smiled on me as one of my cards was “The Extinction of Dinosaurs” which seemed such an outlier compared to anything else it felt like cheating. Steve and I both got rid of our cards in the same round. We decided to guess at the remaining card “First Superhero” in a homebrew tiebreaker, whoever guessed the closest would win. I guessed 1936, only slightly earlier than the actual year of 1938.

Ian – no cards left

Steve – no cards left

Martin – 1 card left (I think)

Having settled Lennon Anja was finally free to play games. If it had been Christmas, Anja’s red-and-white arm cast (following a nasty fall down the stairs) would have been very festive, but alas we’re in May. After some brief gaming debate we settled on an old favourite, Mille Fiori.

It was a strange game in some ways, lasting maybe a tad longer than expected but full of twists, and the Townspeople areas relatively untouched for most of the game. Martin had an early lead, but after a slow start I was the first to reach 100 points. Martin scored big in one round and rocketed back ahead. Anja played a steady game throughout though and was able to pull into a comfortable lead when her early placements started allowed to start scoring bonuses. 

There was a lot of swearing with numerous utterances of “bollocks” and Steve, seemingly stuck languishing at the back, could only say “fuck you all” after finding the spaces he wanted to play in repeatedly blocked.

Anja’s consistent approach proved victorious, and Steve regained a lot of ground towards the end for a close finish.

Anja – 205

Martin – 188
Ian – 188
Steve – 178

Next up was Catan – On the Road. This card-based twist on Catan has seen a few plays recently, and it’s good fun. At one point during his trade Steve asked, “Does anyone have a sheep?”, and when Anja offered the said sheep Steve responded, contemplatively “So, you’re offering a sheep?” as if the offer wasn’t the exact request resource. It amused me, anyway.

It became very clear that Martin was going to win on his next turn, unless we could stop him. We tried, and Steve agonized over his final choice but couldn’t catch up to Martin, who ended the game as expected.

Martin – 7
Steve – 6
Ian – 5
Anja – 3

Steve retired at this point, leaving Anja, Martin and I to play a final game of Misfits. I do wonder if playing an arm in a cast would hinder Anja slightly, and a couple of tower collapses on her go seemed to suggest this could be case, but I also experienced a collapse leaving Martin to dispose of his pieces with relative ease. As usual, Misfits gave rise to wonderfully pleasant constructions best represented with pictures.

And with that Martin and I headed back to Greenbank, another lovely games night. Thanks all.

Swapping Secret Santa for Secret Hitler

Big T was first to arrive at my house for Christmas games yesterday, as we kicked off a few hours earlier than usual at 1pm. Joe was hot on his heels so after a brief catch-up and coffee, we reasoned that it would be silly not to start playing games, so we did. Joe brandished Take Time at us and we jumped in.

This is a fun little Mind-esque game of playing numbered cards around a clock face, with the not-insignificant caveat that each segment, going clockwise, must be of the same or higher value than the one previous. Add in a couple of extra wrinkles and that's pretty much it: but with no communication allowed after you've seen your cards, success proved occasionally elusive. Did we succeed on that final round? I don't actually remember now, but either way, Katy arrived and we shifted gears into sentient vegetable heroism with Potato Man. 

There was just time for a one-round game (won by me) before, as if summoned into being by Adam - compare above and below images - Pete turned up. 

We played another single-round game (won by Big T) and then Adam H and Laura arrived, so we split into teams and broke out Phantom Ink. Joe and I were the clues, with Joe's team at a slight numerical disadvantage (Joe, Pete, Big T) as I clued to Laura, Katy and Adam H. 

Our first word was Pancake, and despite my spelling confusion, our team's question of Who would dislike it was very helpful as I started <mis>spelling CELI(AC). When asked for a nickname I clued CRE(PE) and from there it was a straightforward victory. We went again with the Adams now clueing for the same teams, and midway through the game Chris arrived to bolster the numbers, joining with the short-staffed Pete/Joe/Big T gang. Unfortunately we lost our most coherent decoder shortly after, as Laura had to go off and escape from a room in Cabot Circus, and Katy and I spent most of our time looking at each other in confusion as Adam regarded us with a mix of long-suffering sympathy and crestfallen disappointment. We did figure out Snow, but our shot in the dark simply negated any opposition doubts and they guessed, correctly, the answer was Snowball. 

We realised with a large afternoon stretching before us we could now play some big ol' chunkers. Big T proffered The Barracks Emperors and Joe Chris and Katy leapt in to join him. I played the Christmas sympathy card to get River of Gold on the table and Andy Mosse arrived to find himself dealt in to it, charitably sitting down to an immediate rules-teach. 

In River of Gold, we're sailing up and down (well, repeatedly down, thanks to Rokugan's curious looping geography) the river and establishing trade routes. Despite the madness of the board, River of Gold has a certain simplicity to it: there are only three actions to choose from: move your boat, build a building or deliver to a customer. The goal is to move yourself up the six influence tracks to the east of the river, and the main difficulty we found with the game is remembering to roll the die at the end of your turn instead of the beginning. 

Andy took the laurels here, with Pete second and then myself and Adam lagging a short way behind. 

At the other end of the table, the Barracks were echoing to the sound of a lot of profanity, with Katy summoning her insult of choice for Chris as he did something or other she objected to. There seemed to be a lot of objecting, in fact - the game is a trick-taker of sorts but with a board where cards are laid and prizes - using the word loosely - to be surrounded and claimed. This chicanery continued as River of Gold finished and we began playing Poison. 

This was also new to Andy, but he took to it with his standard zen vibes and nearly followed his River of Gold triumph with a second win, but I just pipped him. 

Sam 13

Andy 14

Adam H 22

Pete 34

Around now the Barracks Emperors concluded as well, and Katy celebrated her debut victory by going off for chips, abetted by Joe and Adam. When they returned, Andrew was with them as well, like the fourth wise man, proffering a festive bottle of ketchup. We paused for dinner. 

After that, Joe suggested Secret Hitler and we split into liberals and fascists. Katy wanted to know if, should she be dealt into the fascists team, she could sabotage it. Joe admitted there was no rule against it, but it could get confusing. And in fairness the game was confusing enough with Joe and I not spotting that each other were fascists and me being convinced Chris was, even though he hadn't opened his eyes. I knew Katy wasn't because she seemed to be enjoying herself.  

I'm still not 100% clear on how the game works, but I did grasp that we all take turns being the president, and the president nominates a chancellor, and then there's a vote and then the president gets some cards and passes two to the chancellor to choose one of, and after this either a liberal or fascist law gets passed. There's enough fog over proceedings that nobody can be totally sure who is who, and Andy found himself shot dead simply for having the temerity to chat in chambers. Then Katy shot Big T who was Hitler and so the liberals won - perhaps for the best in these popularist times, and certainly for Katy's disposition. 

Laura was returning imminently so we split into three groups, with the Fellowship trick-taker, Babylonia and Mille Fiori spread across the table. But now I will hand the reins to our default note-taker and blogger, Andrew.

*

I was walking towards Sam’s house when I was caught up by Joe, Katy and Adam T. I was astonished as the coincidence of all of us arriving at the same time but this was soon explained when I saw the bags full of portions of fish and chips. I had got here just as people were breaking for food.

I had just eaten, so I watched while the gaming table vanished beneath unwrapped papers and various deep fried comestibles. The chat revolved around games, trying to think which games would work with non gamers. Joe told us about a game where you’re given a word and have to guess if it’s a Tolkein character or an antidepressant.

After the food was finished and the table cleared, Secret Hitler was brought to the table. As Sam has already said, it’s a social deduction game, it was capable of allowing all of us to play. In this game, the liberals have to detect the fascists - as determined by drawing an envelope with your secret identity within. And if that weren't enough, one lucky (?) player gets to be Hitler.

I'll be honest, I didn’t really get it. I was a fascist and, as such, I knew that my partners were Joe and Sam but it later transpired that Sam didn't know about Joe, since they were sitting next to each other and couldn’t see each others’ secret signal at the start of the game . Additionally,  Chris kept passing fascist policies. Maybe he was also a fascist and I hadn't noticed, I thought, or maybe he's passing fascist policies because they give the player a little special action. But then Chris, using a special action, assassinated the liberal Andy M, so then I was quite convinced he was a fascist and I’d missed it. Sam voted against himself as President. “I changed my mind,” he explained. I was bemused.

In the end, Katy was the one who identified Adam T as Hitler and killed him, and the game ended with the liberals victorious. It was quite sedate, apparently. Previous (non GNN) games have been quite rambunctious, we were told. Maybe it was the chips, but it was all very low key. I had no idea what was going on at all.

Next, several people adjourned to the front room to choose a game, and Pete came back with a £10 note in his hand, making us all wonder what was going on in there. We hear from Laura that she’s on her way and so we devise a system in which we set up three games and she can join any of them once she arrives.

The choices in this devillishly complex method was Fellowship of the Ring (Adam T, Chris and myself), Babylonia (Sam, Adam H and Pete) and Mille Fiori (Hoe, Katy and Andy M). Although once Laura had arrived, both Fellowship and Babylonia had begun so she joined Mille Fiori. She seemed happy enough.

In Fellowship, the three of us took on Chapter 16 - a tricky hand for a trio containing two relative newbies. But we persevered at Adam’s behest (he wanted to complete all 18 Chapters before the end of the year) and, after three attempts we nailed it! I was quietly smug and keen to try Chapter 17, but Adam checked the game and discovered the next bit was Chapter 16a and looked like quite a long endeavour.

Since Babylonia had finished at the same time as us we decided to leave 16a to another day.

Sam 163

Adam H 156

Pete 127

I remember remarking that Sam’s position on the board didn’t look like a winning one - a couple of small disparate areas, until Pete pointed out all the cities Sam had taken with his strategy.

Mille Fiori was still in full flow, and I heard Joe take a turn that went on for so long that he apologised halfway through.

The six of us played Fuji Flush and I was quietly confident, since this game is - for some reason - my strongest game. Back when we had a Division charting our results, I had a win rate of 50% which is odd for a luck-based game that usually plays five or more. I didn’t say anything, in case I made a target for my back. Plenty of dick points on display and poor old Pete seemed to have a hand made up entirely of 2s and 3s. And I won again, adding my final card - a 7 - to an already existing chain of 7s.

Next up, the six of us bided our time with 6nimmt. Adam T was hesitant to play, but didn’t have the energy or inclination to veto it. And a good thing too, as he ended up a comfortable winner.

Adam T 12

Pete 23

Adam H 24

Sam 32

Andrew 39

Chris 41

And talking of comfortable winners, here are the results from Mille Fiori.

Joe 239

Katy 217

Andy M 167

Laura 154

Joe, Andy M and Adam T left at this point and the six of us played Ito, using the chevrons from Fun Facts as a handy way of keeping track of everyone’s numbers. The categories were vague enough for some details to be clarified. Is a “popular villain” one who is generally beloved by the public, or just very well known? Good job we did check, because we got that one 100% right.

Another curio that this game threw up was when Sam’s reply to “Things that give you goosebumps” was “thinking about goosebumps”. This is about as close to breaking the fourth wall that real life can get but then Sam explained that when he started to think about what might give him goosebumps, that itself gave him goosebumps. Perfectly valid, I suppose.

Things that give you goosbumps - the lower reaches of the scale

After that, I had enough in me for one last game. We split into two groups. I played Katy and Adam at Biblios, and it went pretty much as you might expect. Halfway through I got that sinking feeling that I wasn’t very strong in anything, but it was far too late to do anything about it. And I was right. Amazingly, though, no one finished the game with any orange cards at all, meaning that die was discarded, unscored.

Katy 5 (plus brown die)

Adam 5

Andrew 0

The other end of the table played Soda Jerk which I'm afraid I was completely oblivious to.

Whiskey and soda jerk, anyone?

With that, I was done. Many thanks to everyone for another exciting year. I’ll hand back to Sam for the final part of the blogging.

*

After Andrew left we were down to a quartet - or at least I thought we were. We set up for Misfits and and then saw Pete was quietly watching us, as though not wanting to interrupt. He'd decided to get a later train home and so we redistributed the pieces and set about it. I criticised Katy for going gong-ho saboteur on her very first turn, but the structure survived, long enough to grow big enough that when it collapsed on Pete and later Laura, they were handed enough wooden pieces to start a small fire. 

Chris then drove Pete off to the station and we were left as a trio. And what better way to end the evening than three cracks at So Clover. We kicked off with a 13/18, did about the same in the second game and then finished off with a triumphant 18 in the finale, by which point Katy was sure we had played four times but Laura and I demurred. 

Now a whisky or two to the good, there was even some post-game chat comparing dysfunctional families and putting the world to theoretical rights. Midnight was not tremendously far away by this point, and after a full shift of gaming, it was time to say goodnight. Thanks all for coming, it was epic!

ChameleAnja

Please welcome Pete to blogging duties! This is last week's report, 25th November) 

*                            *                            *

Tuesday approached as it usually does, and Steve enquired if anyone would be up for Fishponds games.

He emphasised games based *in* Fishponds, and not based *on* Fishponds, so I (Pete) was relieved to find that plenty of other gamers weren't put off by this, and eventually by confirmation  that wellies were not required.

Joe, Martin, Sam, Adam and Katy began by playing Mü, only briefly pausing to debate whether the title was a cat-noise or a cow-noise.

Joe advises Martin was leading, but they called it early after two rounds with Sam feeling increasingly exhausted/unwell and kindly dropped home by Joe. Perhaps there will be a rematch this week? (and it might even be reported more promptly! 😆)

At the other end Steve, Anja, Louis and I deliberated a little more. I was tempted by Broom Service but we decided it would probably be a bit long. Steve suggested Magic Maze, but expressed concern that Anja would not take to a silent co-op. Anja was speechless. Whether this was indignation, practice or demonstration, we elected to play Chameleon instead.

For a rulebook of two A6 pages Steve & I found this surprisingly unintuitive at first, though he had the excuse of being without glasses and well and truly blocked into a corner by the throng of gamers.

Once these were obtained we got into it quickly- all but one player (the titular Chameleon) are let in on a secret word from a list, then all have to give a clue to it, before voting on who the Chameleon is. The Chameleon has to either conceal their identity fully, or has an out if they are caught but can guess the secret word (hence those in the know can't be too precise).

Pretty tough on the Chameleon if they are going first and have no clue whatsoever, but it seems with a bit of luck, vagueness and sowing doubt the Chameleons did pretty well. When I say Chameleons, I mostly mean Anja! Even when caught once she escaped.

From being unsure if it would work, I enjoyed this, I think having that bit more structure makes it a bit less fragile than more freeform similar games like Spyfall and something else I've forgotten. I even escaped once, mainly because I could frame Steve as his chosen word turned out to be suspiciously similar to mine...

We elected to wrap up at the same time as the others, with Anja leading on 3, myself on 2 and Louie and Steve tied on 0.

Thinking about it, I don't believe we successfully captured a single Chameleon- interesting! Would be good to go a few more rounds and see how common that is, and how it would turn out with everyone getting a go.

While Joe was gone and with Sam and Louie departed for the evening the rest of us all played Martin's Bluffit.

This prompted Steve to enquire just how many games Martin owns that consist largely of decks of cards with numbers on them. It certainly seems to be a rich design space - I suspect it would take us quite some time to play through them all. Guesses in the comments? 😜

In this one we were starting with identical hands to bid for a row of cards in the middle, or perhaps to secretly compare with another player to try and steal their claim. And then repeating again to compete for the cards we'd just bid with.

I can't remember if Joe returned in time to witness a dramatic finale with Martin stealing a card to sneak ahead of Anja, only to discover that Steve was still slightly ahead.

We then split again to create a Doppelkniziatisch.

Martin, Joe and Anja made coloured glass in Mille Fiori, which I don't know and only caught a few glimpses of. It appeared Martin had the corner of the board nearest him tiled / glazed / whatevered pretty much entirely green. This appears to have been quite successful:

Martin 225

Anja 204

Joe 192

Meanwhile Adam, Katy, Steve and I launched cats into space by rolling dice in M:LEM, while Molly investigated the box for spaceship potential.

We didn't necessarily get that far into space- Katy definitely dominated the first planet; other cats did make it further, but none to deep space.

I think I got the ship closest, but then I was following a previously trodden path in a new game; take risks early on while figuring out how it works, then take more risks to try and catch up. I was relieved that cats lost to space return to your pool of possible recruits, though feeling thematically a little perplexed. I was glad Molly was much more interested in the box than the fate of spacefaring cats.

Adam's cats fared much better, and I think he surprised us (well, at least Katy and I) a little with how fast he had all his cats successfully disembarked to triggered the game end. However, Steve had again scored slightly higher.

Steve 26

Adam 22

Katy 21

Pete 12

Despite some muttering about heading home we elected to sneak one round of So Clover! We flew out of the blocks with Joe's clover solved correctly in about 30 seconds. The group did a good job with mine as well, but from a start of 12/12 we then came a bit unstuck, despite a willing feline helper.

Birdshit for pigeon/award was inspired, and I very much liked Rapunzel for hair/building. Boxing/landscape was indeed a tricky one though..

I don't think the overall score was that bad that we should have deliberately forgotten it, but it seems possible- can anyone dredge it up from their memory?

Thanks again all and especially our hosts for another great evening of gaming 🙂

Fishing for Experts

Although we had unfortunate late drop-outs (Pete and Andrew) there was still a solid six last night at the table. Long-time absentee Adam T was back, and he, Ian and I kicked off the evening whilst we awaited the others with a game of sumo-wrestling shoving match Slambo. I didn't snap pictures but here's my hand v Martin at the weekend.

It's super-simple. All we're doing is playing cards to a shared discard where we keep track of the current, cumulative value, as blue cards (positive) force it up and red cards (negative) down. If anyone is forced to take the value over ten or below zero, they have lost the bout and everyone else gets to crow 'Slambo!' at them. Shame is enforced - in the form of a card - and as soon as someone loses three bouts they lose the game - whomever has least shame at this point wins. We didn't get to three, as other sumo wrestlers were arriving around us, but Adam was least shamed when we packed it back into its tiny box again. 

Adam - top sumo
Sam - average sumo
Ian - abashed

Now Katy and Adam H were here I took the liberty of setting up Whirly Derby. Martin's infamous greens (win most races) had been replaced by a new set from the publisher, and Katy dismissed insider advice on the outsider-ranked black marbles, saying she would navigate the problem with skill. Joe arrived to find himself already marbled, so to speak, as we began racing in earnest. 

Katy's confidence seemed to evaporate fast as the blacks stayed true to the bookie's predictions early on, and Ian - playing green - got off to a solid start. Despite the new green marbles being clearly larger than the old set, class is permanent and they seemed keen to dominate. 

Not entirely though - Adam T's reds pulled off the result of the game with this finish...

...causing him to - temporarily - change his feelings about Whirly Derby not being a 'proper' game. However, it wasn't enough to catch Ian, and again there was talk about perhaps adding a bidding phase for the marbles: green still seem strong, and blacks trailed in nearly last:

Ian Green 45
Adam T Red 43
Sam Blue 21
Joe Orange 20
Katy Black 14
Adam H White 10

We split into trios for the evening's main courses, with Joe, Adam H and I keen to try out Martin Wallace's condensed Railways of the World game, Steam Power, and the others perusing the alcove of joy before deciding on Mille Fiori. 

Steam Power shares a lot of genetics with Railways. There's no turn-order auction or special cards, but you're building track to deliver cubes from factories - this time to fulfil contract cards. There's only four resources and, as with Railways, you can share connected networks. Unlike Railways, once you've started building track, you can only extend from there and not jump around the map - Germany, in our case.

Adam - yellow - and Joe - red - began contesting the mid-west whilst I struck a more independent note in the south. I forgot to take any photos again (apart from the one above) but overall the vibe is recognisably Railwaysy whilst being faster: as soon as anyone completes X amount of contracts (11 with three players) endgame is triggered, so there's a balance between building an empire and exploiting it for all you can. As players can take cubes from opponents factories there's a tangible, and not always totally inadvertent, dickishness to things. We enjoyed it, although Joe and I probably knew what would happen score-wise going in:

Adam H 64
Sam 60
Joe 48

Mille Fiori wrapped up at exactly the same time, having exhibited the same levels of shenanigans and muttering throughout. All three players had taken turns leading, but it was Ian - green! - who emerged triumphant in what, for Mille Fiori, was a tight finish. 

Ian 210

Katy 202
Adam T 190

We shuffled seats. Adam T suggested getting back in the Fellowship trick-taking saddle, and Ian and I joined him. The others went to bathe in the alcove's golden glow and returned with a selection of boxes before ultimately deciding on Fishing, which all of them had played before. I'm not as good as Andrew at keeping track of what's happening on the other side of the table, but I did snap Katy looking very excited by the prospect of fish. 

In the Fellowship, we took on Chapter 13, where we set out from somewhere or other hoping to reach Moria (I think) and mechanically, this meant a 'long' chapter where multiple hands are played until all 7 (or 8, if you include the optional Bill the Pony) characters have made it through.

We got off to a solid start, with a clear opening round as Frodo, Merry and one of the Elves made it through the gauntlet. But Boromir - morally compromised - and Aragorn - picky with numbers - both harpooned the second round. 

Then we rallied somewhat, used the Mithril shirt to protect Frodo, and finished our jaunt to Middle-Earth with a solid victory. There was a brief debate about continuing into Moria, but it was another long chapter so we elected to move on to the different speed of Gadget Builder. 

This is an UNO-inspired card-shedder where you can play like UNO - play matching colour-or-number cards to a shared discard pile - but you can also spend cards to build gadgets which give you special powers. The gadgets are helpful, but you can only use one per turn and you can't go out if any of them are unused. First to three rounds wins, and we were poised at a 1-0-0 score when the others finished Fishing, with Katy the victor in an incredibly tight finish, as all anglers brough their hard-won North Sea experience to bear:

Katy 94

Adam 93

Joe 90

We were going to pack Gadget Builder in, but all three of them were exhausted by their time at sea and bade us goodbye, not even taking up the offer of So Clover! Incredible scenes. More credible scenes followed, as we continued Gadget Builder with all of us utilising gadgets and winning rounds, leaving us poised again, this time on 2-2-2 with a next-round winner. Ian and I conferred this morning that we'd both forgotten who won, but knew it wasn't ourselves. So it must have been Adam!

Adam - 3

Ian and Sam 2 each, plus bonus senior moment

And that was that!