Nicht noch einmal!

This week's GNN was looking to be reasonably populated, only for work and weather to cull us back to five: Ian was first in out of the heavy rain at my (Sam's) house, followed by equally sodden Martin and Katy, before Joe strolled in looking catalogue dry. The evening began in most un-GNN-like fashion as we sat with Sally and the boys chatting and eating apple pie, almost as if there were no games to be played.

But there were, and our plans of Clanking or Rocketing (Stephenson-wise) were abandoned for some five player options: we started with The Chameleon, the cross between Spyfall and Codenames.

Like Spyfall, cards are dealt during each round that denote who the chameleon is, whose task to A. not reveal themselves and/or B. work out what the word of the round is. The other cards and a set of dice decide on the word, which is one of about 16 visible on a face-up card - and the visible words are of a theme: animals, music genres and so on. Everyone but the chameleon knows which word is the chosen one, and after a short period of "thinking time" everyone says a single, ostensibly related, word. Then everyone discusses and guesses who the chameleon is. If they choose wrong, the chameleon wins. If they choose correctly, the chameleon can still win by identifying the word.

 chameleon not pictured

The latter was the case for us half the time - in all but one round we nailed the chameleon, but half the time they guessed the word anyway - like Spyfall, you're trying to give the impression you know the word without actually giving it away to the chameleon, and we were being rather obvious. In the final round I was the chameleon, and I decided to go fairly random and just say the word "Orange", hoping to bluff my way out of it. But as luck would have it, I was last to speak and the other words revealed to me that the correct word was Christmas. I stuck with orange, happily remembering that oranges - or satsumas, as Joe correctly pointed out - appear in stockings. Thanks to kismet and some vague words from Ian and Katy, I pulled off the only outright chameleon win of the night!

We moved on to the meat of the evening, which was Beowulf. I rarely request this but I always enjoy it, and last night was no exception. The very first bid turned into an epic battle where everyone felt too committed to drop out, and as a result cards were a scarce commodity from early on. Joe and I both took scratches and wounds, but I managed to pick up a couple of scrolls as well, whereas Joe was bereft of them.

Oh, Beowulf

Ian and Katy both managed to build themselves enormous hands of cards at some stage, whereas Martin and I seemed short of them. Halfway through I sensed it was a battle between Katy and Martin, as Joe looked to be struggling still and Ian seemed too forlorn - but I had forgotten that is merely Ian's natural demeanour.

But spare a thought for Martin, who gallantly reminded Ian in the final, epic battle - where both of them successfully risked into existence numerous cards - that when Ian's risk finally failed him he had a special card to play that negated the risk and allowed him to go again. He did, and it proved a crucial moment in determining the victor, as Martin's risk response did not fare as well:

Ian 28
Katy/Sam 26
Martin 23
Joe 14

Martin's successful risks weren't quite enough...

After the tension of bidding in Beowulf we went for a different kind of tension: bidding in Perudo. This perennial classic showed all its qualities - apart from the Calza rule - as we bluffed and brinkmanshipped our way through another twenty minutes of GNN history. Despite Joe's death spiral, it was Martin first out as the others shed dice down to palafico status and I somehow held on to all five of mine. Ian and Joe soon exited too, although my dice were depleted by the time I faced Katy thanks to two moments where I wanted to call Calza (and would have been successful) but had to raise, and was successfully dudo-ed.

It was now a face to face between Katy (one die) and myself (two). I rolled a 4 and 6 but bid one 5, hoping Katy wouldn't bid a single six. It was risky, but it paid off as she went one ace and I dudo-ed her out of the game.

Despite Joe, Ian and I agreeing we were collectively 'pooped' Martin corralled us into one more game, which was Noch Mal ("Again" in German), one of Joe's roll-and-write purchases that have been making their way to the table recently. I was curious, since I really like Rolling America and Qwixx, but was less impressed than everyone else by Kribbeln. It was new to everyone but Joe and Katy, but the game is pretty simple: six dice are rolled - three numbered, three coloured - and then the active player chooses a combo of colour and number to cross off boxes on their Noch Mal pad. All the other players then choose one of the remaining combos for themselves, with the caveat that if they can't cross off adjacent boxes exactly (i.e. they can't access those boxes from previously filled ones, or they don't have enough space) then they can't cross off anything. Players completing a column or all the boxes of a particular colour score points, and certain boxes are minus points if they end the game un-crossed.

Pre-game-boxes

I thought it was a decent game, but compared to Qwixx or Rolling America it did seem to go on for a while; long enough for some to feel it out-stayed its welcome somewhat. Everyone eventually ran out of the helpful 'joker' spaces on their pads, meaning there were turns were you could do nothing but stare balefully at the table. I think a second play would change a number of tactics and alleviate this, but I didn't get the impression it would get played again soon... Ian hated it so much he lost all his powers of arithmetic and thought 12 + 2 was twenty.

Sam 22
Joe/Katy 18
Martin 16
Ian 14

Early-game boxes. Note that columns further from the centre 

(where you must start your box-crossing) score more points. 

And everyone - bar me - stepped into the windy night. Despite the underwhelm of Noch Mal, a very fun evening. Thanks all!

It's only roll 'n' write but I like it

The coldest summer for decades slowly passes day by day, and we at GNN feel the chill wind through the empty seats around the kitchen table. This Tuesday there were just five of us at Joe's place, with Katy, Ian, Matt and myself making our respective journeys.

We began with Joe suggesting an evening of Roll and Write, the apparently official name for the genre that involves rolling dice and writing things. First was Kibbeln. A Yahtzee-ish game of getting high scores with six multicolored dice while trying to achieve certain criteria such as "no orange faces showing" or "four of one colour showing".

Then there are the four Kibbeln rounds where each player simply has to score as much as possible. The caveat being the your score must beat your score in a previous Kibbeln round or you're bust and get nothing. How cunning.

Joe introduced us to the game and then got the opposite of Explainer's Curse, winning the first three rounds. I came last each time.

But then Matt pegged Joe back in round two, in which Joe went bust twice. Then in the final epic round, Matt consolidated his lead and more bust rounds even cost Joe second place.

Matt 32
Katy 29
Joe 25
Ian 23
Andrew 19

It was entertaining, if perhaps with five of us, it dragged a little. But it was nice to see Das Exclusive in its full pomp. A marvellous sight.

There was no real desire for more dice rolling, so instead we spent some time staring at Joe's games wall, optimistically saying games' names out loud to resounding indifference.

Eventually we chose another new game - Spice Road. The blurb on the box promised the rich excitement of haggling in a Middle Eastern market, whereas the game manages to distill the basic engine-building mechanic of get stuff to get stuff into a simple card game.

Not to say it was a bad game, but it was somewhat dry. As a sort of four-player puzzle, I enjoyed it. I went for a large hand of cards while the others preferred to recycle their hands much more frequently. It's probably a game where familiarity breeds capability, as the final scores demonstrate:

Joe 75
Katy 60
Matt 59
Andrew 57
Ian 40

When this was done, it was about half past nine, so any thought of a big game was out of the question. Instead, we went for For Sale, openly mocking anyone who took the lowest card for free for following Katy's discredited strategy.

Oddly, despite bidding and hustling with the rest of us, Katy did very badly again. Ian, meanwhile, was very cautious with his bidding at first and then, before I knew it, he was out of cash! He must've overbid for something, but I missed the details.

Joe's second round started in peculiar fashion: first he got $0 with a 17 card, and then got $15k with an 18 card. He also kept bluffing me (with the 29) that he was about to play his 30. Evil Joe. Not evil enough to win, though.

Andrew 61
Joe 52
Matt 51
Ian 43
Katy 34

Next up, since Ponzi Scheme was not an option with five players, Katy's request for Perudo was happily accepted.

Amazingly, it was Matt’s first game so, after a rules explanation, we were in. We showed Matt no mercy as the newbie but first I, then Ian, then Joe hit palafico. But each one of us survived our brush with death.

After Joe’s palafico, the numbers of dice were Katy 3, Matt 2, Joe, Ian and me on one.

Ian was out first, followed by Matt hitting palafico and going out. His bid of two aces failed! Then I fell, leaving Joe vs Katy, with Joe on one lone die, compared to Katy’s three.

Joe then managed to win the next three rounds, with the most remarkable being when it was two dice versus one. Katy bid two threes and Joe went for one ace. Katy said Dudo, and they revealed: Katy had two threes and Joe had one ace! Basically, Katy’s problem was that she was too honest in her bids.

1. Joe
2. Katy
3. Andrew
4. Matt
5. Ian

At this point, Ian retired from the fray, citing an eight o'clock start tomorrow as an excuse. The rest of us showed no such signs of fatigue.

Joe introduced us to another dice game. Das Exclusive was retired in favour of the smaller, rounder dice arena (Das Inclusive?) and we played Noch Mal. A game in which players use a combination of coloured and numbered dice to cross off areas on a scorepad.

Points are scored for columns completed, colours completed and "star squares" crossed off. Joe, once again sped into a lead and, this time, held it.

Joe 27
Katy 20
Andrew 16
Matt 13

Another evening wrapped up. This one more dice-heavy than usual, but fun nevertheless. Thanks all.