Five go mad in Butte

Games night without Joe and Sam is bound to be fallow. With Adam H and a string of other apologies this week and doubts about the fitness of my car, there was a time when it might have been just Martin and Katy. Instead we were five in total: the two aforementioned and Ian, Adam T and myself. Katy and I were late, and when we arrived we found a game of Eggs of Ostrich just ending.

Ian 7
Adam 6
Martin 3

Once we were all settled around the table we looked at the stack of games already laid out that would be good with five. We started with Northern Pacific. It was new to Adam but Martin insisted he could teach it in a minute. It began in a feisty mood. Katy began and placed a cube. Martin immediately moved the train past that cube, rendering it useless.

It was all very cagey stuff, apart from the fairly obvious jokes about putting things into Butte. Round three saw a lot of spread betting as everyone tried to put off moving the train for as long as possible. Katy spent a lot of time saying she was just happy being in third, so you can imagine how happy she was when she finished in second.

Ian 28
Katy 26 (wins on tie breaker)
Adam 26
Martin 23
Andrew 21

After this was Mamma Mia, chosen by Katy who was already in a state of high excitation at the possibility of being dealt the Mamma Mia card. She actually got it in round one and then theatrically dealt out the stack of cards in a broad Italianish accent. It was Adam’s first go at this game, too, and halfway through round one he said he’d worked out how you can play well. Ominous words and they preceded an amazing comeback in round three that had us checking the rules for a tie-breaker. I hoped it was “the quietest” who won, but instead it was “most cards left in hand” so Katy squeaked a win on one of her most loved games. Martin, meanwhile, insisted he used to be good at it.

Katy 5 (won on tie breaker)
Adam 5
Martin 3
Ian 3
Andrew 2

Then we played Nakanuki Paradise at my request. This game of guessing the highest value to bid without the total value exceeding the target is such a simple, clever game. Far too clever for me.

Martin 22
Adam 21
Katy 17
Ian 15
Andrew 13

Time was ticking on and for Adam’s last game before he departed, we chose a three-round game of Voodoo Prince. In round one Katy clearly had no trumps and was heading into a last-player-standing showdown with Ian, with only one trick to her name. Ian made things simple by showing her his remaining three cards: all trumps. She was out last and with only one point to her name.

I went out in similar fashion in round two and Adam in round three. But what of the other end of the scale? The winners? It was Ian versus Martin as we went into the last round, with Adam one point off the pace. Katy, buoyed up by her ten point haul in round two, kept asking if it was possible for her to win. Possible, but unlikely. Almost as unlikely as there being no trumps left in the game once there were only three players left. Katy did finish round three with most points, putting her in a respectable second, but Ian was third to last out for ten points while Martin was out first for five.

I had no trumps at all in round two

Ian 28
Katy 22
Martin 22
Adam 17
Andrew 13

After Adam left, we ended on a baffling round of QE. We bid for points, but those bids increased our chances of losing. Oh, the irony. Ian and I struggled to buy anything at first, and then Ian went on a spending spree that would make the Sultan of Brunei blush. He and I both tied for identical winning bids on one round: Katy had set the starting price at 20,000 and we both put in bids of 20,001. In the end, just like last time, Katy won by miles. A game she excels at, but might have difficulty finding people to play against in future.

Katy 37
Martin 29
Andrew 23
Ian OUT (but had 19)

And with that, we were done. All back homewards with more memories than we can plausibly keep except as a general warm glow of recollection.

Whittle down the will

Six gamers, two of whom had travelled thousands of miles since they last met a year ago, congregated at Joe's kitchen table for an evening of games: Joe, Sam, Martin, Ian, Katy and me.

We began with Maskmen, the curious game of emergent properties (of wrestlers). The Mountain Goats provided a thematic backdrop with a concept album (about wrestlers) while Katy and I were introduced to the game.

It is strange and difficult to judge, not just what to play but who is beating who. The very sparse scoring system meant that in a six player game, three would get no points at all ("I'm okay...for zero," said Martin) while a fourth would get minus one. Fine margins indeed.

It was Katy who unleashed her gimpish inner fighter to best effect.

Katy 4
Andrew 2
Joe 2
Martin 1
Ian 0
Sam -1

Next we stayed as a six for a game of Not Alone. In this game, one player is the native of an alien planet trying to capture the other players who have all been stranded on said planet and are waiting for the rescue ship to arrive.

Katy was tonight's alien and she did very well, stopping us from doing all of the necessaries to escape. In the first move she went to the river at the same time as me, Joe, Sam and Ian did. Luckily Martin saved us with a survival card that moved the alien to an adjacent place.

Of the survivors, Martin did the best, saving our bacon with survival cards on more than one occasion. The rest of us had our will whittled away completely at some point (maybe Sam avoided that, not sure) and in the end Katy was able to assimilate us by catching Joe again, with the rescue ship only two spaces away.

Then we split into two groups. Katy, Sam and Joe played Tiny Town which looked adorable but apparently is full of Take It Easy style analysis paralysis. Ian Martin and me chose Senators, a new card game of bidding and buying, with the peculiar rules that all losing players should stand up at the end and say "Hail, Caesar!" and also that there is no second place.

In the game you can start an auction (to try and buy resources or sell them and get money), cash in sets of three resources (for money), embezzle publicly visible cards from your opponents and all of this is so you can buy senators (points, basically). Most points wins.

I had very little money early on after I went a bit nuts in an auction round. I had plenty of resources, but no sets of three. Martin is able to get some money by cashing in and while Ian started well, he fell away towards the end. My blushes were saved by a bit of a mega move where I got five points for myself and knocked one point off Martin. Not enough to catch him, though.

However at the end of the game neither Ian or I stood up to hail our new leader and, to make things worse, I decided there was a second place after all.

Martin 13
Andrew 12
Ian 8

A nice game and one I'd like to try again.

While we played that, the other half of the table got through two games of Tiny Town.

Joe 31
Sam 24
Katy 22

The second began with Sam declaring early on that he had a plan, and he certainly did better than before, only losing to Joe on a tie break. Katy seemed to have trouble differentiating between certain buildings and icons.

Joe 31
Sam 31
Katy 16

At this point Ian set off on the long trek home while we remaining five play Nakanuki Paradise to a soundtrack of "nice" music as requested by Martin to the Google Assistant. The game was new to me and my notes read simply "crazy game" but it was a lot of fun, and it is like a concentrated version of Polterfass.

Martin 11
Andrew 9
Joe 8
Katy 8
Sam 6

And since it was now a little after eleven we all bade our farewells and set off home. Thanks to all, especially to Joe for hosting the second games events in four days! What a gent.

Let's Make a Games Night

Tonight's games night was my first time in a month, having been away in Japan for the previous three weeks. But that time wasn't just spent eating, hiking and thinking to myself "I wonder what that is," oh no. I brought back games for Sam, Martin and Joe, three of which got their debut today.

Anja and Steve were hosting and Sam, Ian, Matt, Martin, Joe and myself were the guests. But Martin and Matt were late comers and Anja was putting little Luther to bed, so Steve was introduced to a little light game of Fool's Gold to start us off.

Sam sped into an early lead and became a bit of a gravel magnet as a result. Steve quickly joined him on three gold nuggets and when I pulled out two golds in a row, I thought maybe I'd have a chance, too. Joe was generously demonstrating to Steve just how funny Fool's Gold can be by repeatedly going bust. Suddenly, Steve pulled his fourth nugget out of the bag and it was all over.

Steve 4
Sam 3
Andrew 3
Ian 1
Joe 0

Towards the end of this game, we somehow got talking about a song called "Dancing in the moonlight," which I had assumed was the Toploader "classic" from the olden days until Steve insisted that Smashing Pumpkins did a cover of it, at which point I realised that it couldn't possibly be.

We were also treated to a brief visit from Luther. Anja later told us that, back in bed, he'd asked "When I'm six can I stay up and play games?" How adorable.

Now Matt had arrived, we were six in number, so we split into two groups of three. Joe, Matt, and me got to enjoy using pens (as per the slogan on the box) with Let's Make A Bus Route, new from Japan.

It's like a very genteel version of the video game Crazy Taxi, where you have to take passengers to their destinations. You draw a route around a shared map of Kyoto trying to connect students to universities, commuters to train stations, and tourists to temples. You get bonus points for completing a secret journey or fulfilling certain criteria randomly chosen at the start of the game (ie, visit three temples, pick up five pensioners). It was a very jolly experience although after my initial tactic of scoring maximum for a temple (fourteen points!) I kind of ran out of ideas. The other two didn't.

Matt 49
Joe 44
Andrew 24

Meanwhile, the other three tried Maskmen and, by all accounts, it was a bit of an ordeal. After struggling with the rules, Steve decided to check for unofficial rules on the Board Game Geek. It didn't help and despite all three of them reading the rules, they gave up, baffled. After this, Martin arrived and Anja came downstairs.

Martin wanted to try Maskmen, assuring everyone he had some idea about what was going on. Sam, Joe and Matt join him."It's just like quantum physics," he said at the end of his rules explanation which didn't strike me as particularly encouraging. Later he insisted "someone had a really good flow chart." They played on an improvised coffee table made of two occasional tables with a "Road Ahead Closed" sign balanced on top.

I saw Oregon in the family games cupboard and, despite Anja and Steve having only just played it recently with their son, it was brought to the table if only to avoid more thoughtful procrastination while we decide what we were all in the mood for.

We battled for prime pieces of real estate, mostly settling around churches for points. It was Ian's first go but he seemed to get the jist of things pretty quickly.

Despite Steve making a great deal out of explaining the end-game criteria to Ian we all missed Anja's steadily decreasing meeple stash until, before you knew it, the game was over. Luckily, I had the cards for one more high scoring move and my gold and coal pushed me into the front of it very tight pack.

Andrew 51
Steve 49
Ian 48
Anja 47

As for Maskmen, thanks to Martin's clarifications, it turned out to be an enjoyable, if counter intuitive game. I was relieved, glad that I hadn't just brought a shit game halfway across the world.

Sam 4
Martin 3
Matt 1
Joe 0

After this, they played another game from Japan, Nakanuki Paradise. I know little about this game except for the comparisons people drew after playing, saying it had shades of Eggs Of Ostrich and a hint of Polterfass.

Martin 25
Sam 23
Matt 23
Joe 14 ("too greedy, Joe," said Martin)

On the big table (the one not made out of traffic signs) we played a bit of Gold Fever while the others finished their game. This time, Steve provided the comic relief with a remarkable routine in which he'd pull one gravel of each kind, pause, and then pull out another gravel and instantly go bust. It was a joke that just got funnier the more we saw it. He finally got a gold nugget just before I got my fourth to win the game.

Andrew 4
Anja 3
Ian 3
Steve 1

After this, the groups were rearranged and Sam, Anja, Steve and myself played Menara, the tower building dexterity co-op game. The others sat down with Let's Make A Bus Route (on a sign warning of a closed road. How ironic!)

Menara started hesitantly, as you might expect with three newbies. But once we were accustomed to the notion of swapping your pillars beforehand things ran pretty smoothly. Our initial target of four floors increased to six due to a couple of impossible requests from the decks of cards. But we overcame this and were not far from success when Sam said "I can do this!" just before brushing his knuckle gently against our edifice and sending it to the ground.

Meanwhile, Let's Make A Bus Route ended...

Matt 54
Joe 52
Ian 45
Martin 44

And with this, we were done. With the hour hand creeping towards 11, Martin made it clear he had another game in him, but the consensus was for an end to the evening. Thanks to the hosts with their spicy sour peanuts and thanks to the guests too. It was very nice to be back.