I'm totally incensed

This Tuesday's GNN-ness started a few minutes earlier than expected when I met former regular Steve as I walked to Sam's. He couldn't make it tonight, but he told me of a recent visit to a games shop in Germany. Has his flame been rekindled? We can only hope.

I arrived at Sam's to find the host and Joe already halfway through a game of Kribbeln and a margarita each. The roll & write game didn't last long with just two players, but despite its short duration it was surprisingly tense.

Joe 12
Sam 12

By the time they were done, Ian and Martin had joined us. We weren't expecting Katy and Adam for another fifteen minutes so we squeezed in a quick game of No Thanks! The game which, as Ian noted, you can't turn down because it sounds like you're agreeing.

Ian went for the low cards, with the rest of us going for higher cards. In my case, much higher. Martin seemed resigned to the fact that his favoured cards would be picked by other players, with a weary question (rhetorical, I hope) of "Who wants to kick me in the balls?" whenever he turned over certain cards. Turns out, the player furthest from wanting to kick his balls was the clear winner.

Ian 6
Sam 23
Andrew 26
Martin 29
Joe 29

Now we were seven, so we split into to. Three (Katy, Ian and Martin) took on the undead in Hit Z Road. The remainder (Sam, Adam, Joe and me) chose Tribes.

Tribes has been a recent hit of the summer with Sam playing several games and had enjoyed it. This time, though, for whatever reason, the wheels fell of the game's engine.

Sam's early bad luck with exploring didn't help his cause. He found a lot of incense, which is fine for ceremonial burials, but not much else. At least it gave me the blog title.

But it was probably the twin threat of two event tiles that exhausted tiles (ie, took away resources) that really caused problems. No matter how much we avoided them, eventually they got played, with Adam suddenly finding all his abundant fields were barren. On the other hand, he had almost all the shells (the game's currency, used to avoid choosing a tile) while the rest of us had only a few, if any.

This meant there were a few goes were we couldn't afford to choose our action and Adam could only explore, trying to find new resources to use. The game entered a sort of holding pattern, while we slowly tried to get our plans in place.

I was first to leap into action and, since I was already in the lead, my victory was pretty comprehensive.

Andrew 28
Sam 18
Joe 11
Adam 11

Tribes didn't get a lot of love, and Sam admitted that if that had been his first game, he wouldn't have been impressed either. He seemed baffled by how it had played out, as if he didn’t recognise the game at all. Perhaps the most entertaining parts were the text messages from Joe’s daughter on a camping trip wanting to know how to make a kettle boil faster. “Don’t look at it,” suggested Adam.

Hit Z Road, on the other hand, was all excitement accompanied by a steady flow of expletives, mostly from Martin. They had a hard time of it, and had only two survivors left by the time the tougher cards came out.

They didn't last much longer. No one reached the West coast, but Martin was last man standing.

Martin, one survivor still alive
Ian, died later
Katy, died earlier

Since we ended at the same time, groups were rearranged. And I think it was around now when Joe insisted he could probably kick himself in the balls. He even stood up, lifting his left foot up, yoga-like in the required direction. Just as a proof of concept: I don't think actual contact was made. I guess those margaritas were pretty potent.

Now Adam, Katy and Ian played Biblios while Martin & me and Joe & Sam teamed up for Montage.

Montage was tough and I kept getting the colours confused, and I had the embarrassment of giving a clue and then having to retract it. Sam & Joe were perhaps feeling the effect of the early margaritas, since the game was over quite quickly.

Martin & Andrew 4
Sam & Joe 1

Biblios (of the Extreme type) ended with some low scoring dice to fight over.

Adam 7
Katy 5
Ian 1

Then they played NMBR9 while we were finishing off Montage. It appears that Katy is not a fan of this game. Adam, on the other hand...

Adam 111
Ian 65
Katy 46

Then we rearranged again. Now Adam, Sam, Martin and Joe played Polterfass (with fresh margaritas). Ian and I chose Pickomino/Heck Meck as our game, thinking that Katy might be amused at other people's misfortune. Unfortunately the misfortune was all hers. She obsessed over the 27 tile, winning it, losing it, getting it back, and then losing it again. If we’d hoped to get Katy in a better mood, then we had failed. Ian, though, failed more constructively than I did.

Ian 8 (and the 30 tile)
Andrew 8 (and the 29 tiles)
Katy 0

Still needing a pick-me-up for a Katy suffering from a gaming lull, we brought out the big guns: Colour Wheel from Pyramid Arcade. With its bright colours and co-operative ethos, it’s like a board game equivalent of a My Little Pony film. Slowly the mix of shiny plastic and puzzling logic brought out Katy’s better side. And we even solved the puzzle!

By now Polterfass had ended too, with Sam scoring a last-ditch high of 13 points in a round to avoid ending in negative points, which is where he spent most of the game. Adam, though, won again.

Adam 75
Joe 41
Martin 35
Sam 11

They also played another game of Kribbeln which I only know about thanks to the photos on my phone.

I forgot to note the scores, but I did take a photo of the score card near the end. It looks like Joe nicked it in the final round.

Finally, it was time to the finale: Fuji Flush. Ian managed to put a new spin on his reputation of Le Coq Bloquer by repeatedly playing a card that wiped out the chain before I was going to join it. Amazing. Frustrating for me, but it seemed to be a winning strategy.

Ian 0 cards left
Martin 1
Adam 1
Katy 1
Sam 2
Andrew 2
Joe 2

And with that, we were done. Emotionally exhausted and really quite drunk. That’s Tuesday for you!

All Manner of Victories

It was a weekend of heavy gaming in the Morrison household, which I wasn't going to blog about, except for the dramatic, cathartic finish on Sunday.

On Saturday we hosted long-time occasional gamers Katie and Mark. After the remnants of curry and chips were cleared from the table, I asked what everyone fancied playing. Katie, as she always does, suggested Carcassonne, but unfortunately for her my copy had been leant out to a fellow parent from school. I perused the cupboard and suggested Black Orchestra, but Katie's reluctance to learn new rules meant the Fuhrer got to live to see another day. It's attitudes like that that saw Poland annexed.

Instead we played Riff Raff which I won (twice!) by shucking off my long-held habit of finishing last. Mark was on the verge of winning the first game, but all the pieces fell into the sea before his turn arrived, meaning he could only place one piece, rather than his planned two.

Mark had expressed an interest in Pyramid Arcade, so next we had a go at Colour Wheel. This was a big hit with Katie, and we completed our challenge with turns to spare twice. In the second game we threw caution to the wind and started grouping different colours at the same time! It could have been a disaster, but it was a triumph. Everyone was so pleased, I was instructed to take this photo.

loons

With Pyramid Arcade still on the table, we kept things pyramidy with a game of TreeHouse, which is very simple. I took possibly the worst GNN photo ever (and tweeted it).

at the time I really thought this was in focus

We then bashed through a game of Fuji Flush, where Katie went an interesting route of playing her high cards first. It worked up to a degree, as she stormed into an early lead. But I came back into contention, and with my last card the 20, grabbed the win from under the chiselers' fingertips.

Mondo was next, but we found it a rather underwhelming experience overall. "There doesn't seem to be much depth" Sally complained, as her internal gamer broke to the surface of reality for air. The evening was getting blurry at this point, but I think Katie won. Or Mark.

We finished the evening with Push It, returning to the game's recommended method of play: teams. Out of happenstance we ended up as boys v girls.  I'd forgotten how good team play is in Push It. There's more tactics on the table, and you remain invested in what's happening even after you've done two crappy flicks.

Mark developed a technique of always hitting the jack and pushing it towards my discs, and Sally developed a technique of flicking her discs into Katie's lap. The boys won the first game, but the girls took the second game with an extravagant three point flourish at the death.

*

On Sunday my mum came over to see the boys and then have some grown-up time in the evening. We had a little game of Tsuro which Stan won, then the boys showed Crysse what they'd built in the world of Minecraft: a floating house complete with balconies and a roller coaster. My mum is never one to get too excited by computer games, so when she responded with a slightly flat "Wonderful" Stan replied "Mmmm. A little bit sarcastic there".

A lovely family moment.

Later after tea and bedtimes and chats, I got the green light to set up a game. Because my mum's become more curious (maybe indulgent is a better word) of games that aren't necessarily Scrabble, I eyed up Orleans. No! said the voice in my head. Remember Tinner's Trail!

But sometimes I just have to ignore that voice, and run the risk of ridicule and loathing. So - with Sally still upstairs reading Harry Potter to the boys - I set it up and talked my mum through the rules.

Sally entered the room and almost did a comedy double-take when she saw the game laid out on the table. "I'm not sure I can go from stories to... this" she said, but I assumed a casual welcoming air that hid my mounting panic and rising temperature. I also took off my thermal leggings.

Then a strange thing happened. Despite our continued confusion over the difference between scholars and craftsmen, mum began to overtly relish playing. "I love this game!" she said, at least three times, then at the end she said it was the best of the games I'd introduced her to and I should bring it over next time I visit. Sally didn't quite reach the same levels of enthusiasm, but she did seem to enjoy it... The board and pieces are now slightly wine-stained, but never mind.

I think Tinner's Trail is actually simpler

As for the game itself, we missed out (deliberately) one thing, which was the events that define the passing of time in each round, but otherwise played accurately. Sally came to the map belatedly, whilst Crysse kept forgetting you can't move wheels. -The very idea; that a wheel would move!

They both built new buildings for themselves with my mum making a winery and emptying the game's supply of wine, which felt appropriate. I built a biblioteque, and kept joking about how I would go there in the evenings to let off steam - but it was a tough crowd. They were too focussed on other things, I suppose.

You can probably work out who's in the lead at any one moment, but for us it was all a surprise at the end. Sally scored 94 and Crysse and I tied on 120. She didn't want me to find out what the tie-breaker was in case she lost, so we celebrated our shared victory.

Pandemonium

Last night Andrew and I had a stab at two-player Panamax, with mixed results.

As previously mentioned, the game has you loading ships and traversing the Panama Canal in order to generate profit for your company, and/or yourself. Ultimately the richest CEO (player) wins - and the richest company is irrelevant.

shipping

My copy of the game only has a faded black and white print-out of the rules, and no appendix at all, which would have been handy for a few of the game's finer details, such as what to do with a Stevedore. But having negotiated the set-up, play is pretty straightforward - the basic options are contract and/or load, and ship movement. The sting in the tail is the narrow sections of canal, where you can park your own ships and force your opponent to shunt it along for you. When ships arrive at the other end, you and the company both get paid.

shares

There's only three turns to the whole game, so even with our struggles with the rules the whole thing was barely 90 minutes. We played a couple of things fast and loose, but the basics were right. I think I may have made a mistake on the amount of dice we used (which determine available actions) for executive actions (the best ones) as the mathematics of it meant Andrew seemed to always have access to them and my role was simply to reveal them by taking the last basic action!

But outside of that, Andrew just made a better CEO than me. He ended the game with his company paying him massive dividends whilst my guys still resembled a nautical start-up.

Andrew 102
Sam 76

We packed away with the jury seemingly undecided. But I would definitely like to play this again - I think it's probably much better with 3 or 4, and ironing out the small rule issues we had can only help.

Andrew perused the alcove and picked out Pyramid Arcade, as we had another stab at Colour Wheel. This is possibly the simplest game I own, but I love it. Group the colours by swapping same-colour or same-size pyramids, until they are all clustered into their own colour-groups. We succeeded twice, with turns to spare.

Andrew and Sam: win
Pyramid Arcade: loses

We stuck with Pyramid Arcade for our next game: Tree House. In this game you're trying to match the three pyramids in front of you with the three pyramids in the centre of the table: same placement, direction, orientation, etc. On your turn you roll a die and take the appropriate action: Tilt means knock a standing pyramid on its side. Aim means change the direction a sideways pyramid is pointing. Dig means a sideways pyramid can 'dig down' and resurface upright - either in the same place, or elsewhere in your row. And so on.

If you can take the action, you must, and if you can't you have the option of applying it to the 'treehouse' in the middle of the table instead. I think we won a game each - it's ok, but at the end there's that slightly flat feeling that you've just been a grease monkey for the shenanigans of the game itself, rather than the players engaged in it.

As Pyramid Arcade was out on the table though, we tried out another of its 22 games: Looney Ludo. Despite the multiple boards (that move, rotate, swap positions etc during play) this felt surprisingly similar to Tree House. Your goal is to bring all your pieces 'home' to your own board, but doing so involves negotiating the ever-shifting landscape and the possibility your opponent will move your pieces for you. To be fair it's supposed to be fast and silly, but it felt to me like a random abstract with 'fast and silly' foisted onto somewhat.

Sam: wins
Andrew: doesn't

A few games in and I'm still rather ambivalent about Pyramid Arcade. It looks so lovely from the box to the pieces, but out of the games I've played so far only two have really struck me as ones I'd be keen to play again: the silly stacking of Verticality and the co-operative puzzle of Colour Wheel... which is what we finished with, completing our challenge again with just one turn to spare...

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.

It's Trajan' Again

Strictly speaking, it's Trajan for the first time under the umbrella of the blog, but when Andrew began singing to the tune of the old Supertramp song, the post title suggested itself.

So - Trajan. This is a relatively old game from the salad chef that is Stefan Feld. Macao and Castles of Burgundy have their fans at GNN, so we came to this vegan party somewhat belatedly. But having purchased it from Joe some time ago, I got around to playing it through yesterday, and tonight I talked Andrew through the rules. Andrew is great to teach rules to: no matter how much I waffle or go off the point, he simply nods and goes OK.

When in Rome

In Trajan we are Romans, hoping to assist the emperor (Trajan himself) by spreading our legionnaires (actual legionnaires, not the disease) around Europe, helping construct Rome, chatting about stuff in the Forum, playing a bit of one-upmanship in the Senate, and having the odd conflab with ol' Trajan himself. But, as this is a Feld game, the theme is less about dirt, chariots and Charlton Heston, and more about managing a moving abstract pattern - in this case, a mancala-style player board which determines which action (and which bonus action) you'll take.

Action!

Four rounds make a up a year, at which point the game ends. Andrew took to it like the veteran of Feld games he is, and duly trounced me:

Andrew 118
Sam 100

Note to self: try not to end a game with five bonus tiles that score a combined total of zero points.

Despite the AP-inducing abstraction, we found the time was barely 9.15, and decided to explore Pyramid Arcade a little further, having so far only tried three of the available 22 games.

We settled on Martian Chess. This is a 4x8 grid - or more specifically two 4x4 grids containing your pieces, with a 'canal' between them. You have three of three types of pyramid, with their own ways of moving - like the original chess, all can take an opposition piece. The catch in Martian Chess is that after your piece crosses the canal, it becomes your opponent's piece instead! So although it remains yours until the instant the current turn ends (i.e. - you can take a piece on your opponents' side of the board) after that, one of your army has essentially deserted the instant it completed a mission.

Canal Mania

That makes for a very counterintuitive game - especially for two men who spent a whole year in the early 90's playing chess against each other - and we kept getting the rules wrong and correcting each other. I managed the win:

Sam 19
Andrew 11

But I think I'm rather less enamoured of this than both Verticality, and the game we played next: Colour Wheel, the co-operative game of grouping colours together in only 27 turns. We'd had some success with this on its debut, but tonight it stumped us. We tried playing in silence, as an extra challenge, and failed. We talked about it, and failed. Then we talked about it a little more seriously, and failed again. To be honest though, the multiple failures reassured me there is a game here, as our early success was either luck, or being too drunk to mark our turns with the appropriate attention...

Andrew and Sam: lose, three times in a row.

Dastardly

Muttley

Cold War Kids

Five of us assembled around the table: Andrew, Ian, Stanley, Little Joe, and myself. We were having a crack at Colour Wheel, one of the games in the compendium that makes up Pyramid Arcade. This box comes with a big bunch of multi-coloured pyramids, and rules for 22 games.

Colour Wheel is a co-operative effort, where several pyramids are laid out on the eponymous wheel and then, turn by turn, arranged by swapping places (matching size or matching colour) until all seven colours are collected into groups. It's quite a thinky challenge and obviously very abstract, but fun. And we won.

We followed this with a stacking game (it's called Ice House Verticality) which continues until only one tower is left - which was Ian's, as the rest of our efforts collapsed. Finally - pyramid-wise - we tried a multi-player game called Pharaohs (I think) which we eventually gave up on, as Chris has arrived and I needed to put the boys to bed.

Sally had been preparing for a hen night, and her pal Lizi seemed intrigued by the pyramids. When I joked that she would rather stay here and play games, she agreed this was the case. Hard to know how serious it was, but her gaming mettle would have been tested by the main course of the evening...

Before that arrived, Andrew, Chris and Ian bashed out a game of Las Vegas whilst I read stories upstairs. Not being present for most of it, I don't know the story of the game, only the final chapter:

Chris $370k
Ian $300k
Andrew $270k

Vegas babies

With beers and pork scratchings at our disposal, we now set up Covert. This is a Cold-War themed spying game where each player tries to complete missions to score points. You do this by collecting Mission Cards and using either/both Agency Cards or the location of agents on the board to fulfil them. If your mission card states you need an agent in Budapest, in possession of a tape recorder, then you get your agent there and hand in a tape recorder in order to complete the mission.

Code-breakers

The catch - there's always a catch - is that all your actions are decided by dice rolls - not only might someone else beat you to the number you need for a particular action, but dice have to be placed adjacent in a 'wheel' of numbers, from 1-6. Throw in the deciphering option for code-cracking (equalling extra points/extra equipment) and you have a game heavy with pauses whilst everyone juggled the possibilities. One round in and I did remember reading that four players can make the game an AP fest...

But we all enjoyed it enough, and certainly Andrew and Ian were intrigued enough to posit another play soon; though perhaps with 3 rather than 4. My one play with Stan stood me in good stead as I claimed the win:

Sam 56
Chris 44
Ian 36
Andrew 35

We then bashed out a quick game of Timeline, during which we cursed Ian for spilling his whisky all over the cards, and Chris for knowing that the creation of the Earth was older than anything that happened subsequently:

Chris 0 cards
Sam 1 card
Andrew 3 cards
Ian 5 cards

...before breaking out Push It to allegedly finish the evening. By now three of us where reasonably jolly, and Chris' lack of drunkeness placed him into pole position for the win. I even managed to flick the jack off the table entirely... but Andrew came from behind to pull off a surprise win:

Andrew 11
Chris 10
Sam 7
Ian 4

Chris then took his leave, and we decided to revisit Colour Wheel from the Pyramid Arcade box. The rules are simple and no challenge at all. The real poser here is keeping track of how many turns you've had, as you have to complete the challenge within 27 moves. We succeeded first time, but failed the second.

wheel of misfortune

Pyramid Arcade is fun so far: need to revisit the Pharaohs, perhaps with two or three - but the colour wheel and stacking games were a hit. But with the clock nearing midnight, it was time to say goodnight.