Bridge of Sighs

Anja and Steve's was the venue last night, as the rain returned to Bristol once more and I picked up Ian and Martin en route. We arrived to find Anja and Louie and also Ross, who I briefly thought was a newbie only to discover he was there to plumb, as our hosts had been without water for two days already. Fortunately, Ross was to prove successful at plumbing in short order - I was getting nervous about the possibility of bathroom trips being eliminated - though he chose not to join us for the evening's entertainment, but instead go home. By this time, we'd already failed twice at YUBIBO.

It's very much a game that requires a certain type of investment. As Pete pointed out, it's as much about endurance as dexterity, as keeping your hand in a certain position for x amount of time whilst various sticks lean on it isn't a Tuesday night staple. But it was fun. 

By now Steve and Lennon had returned from rugby and Anja set about household duties as Steve joined us for a crack at Link City. We began well with Ian as mayor, getting everything right. Then our successes were rather more mixed around the table, until final mayor Joe got 4 out of 4 to right some wrongs and transform our fortunes from workaday into a high score: 40 points and officially Wow City. 

Martin remained a little indifferent to the game, but I really like it. Although I also like his suggestion that the mayor choose the locations as well. Let's try that next time. 

We now split into groups with Joe leading Ian and Martin off to Sunrise Lane, and Pete talking Anja and I through the rules of 1am Jailbreak, the somewhat niche-themed card-shedder where we are funnelling escaped prisoners through a tunnel. 

Pete found Anja and I a slightly befuddled audience, as we both failed to understand what are fairly simple rules, I think because they are a little unexpected: there are no rounds, you simply keep playing on and on until all your prisoners (ie cards in your hand) have escaped. Also unexpected: Steve, who turned up as we were about to start, but then left again, unable to make it to freedom. 

You can play sets or runs, the only caveat being it must be the same amount of cards or one more or one less as whatever amount the previous player laid. And you can also make a run for it by adding a card to the previous player's cards in order to both hike up the possibility of a big set/run - and of course, ridding yourself of a card in the process. In what I like to think are my Eastwood-in-Alcatraz qualities, I proved best at breaking out of prison in the night. Points are bad:

Sam 0

Pete 6

Anja 17

Sunrise Lane was a slightly closer thing. In fact a much closer thing, for Martin and Ian at least, although Joe wasn't a million miles away.

Martin 101

Ian 100

Joe 88

We were still escaping the penitentiary at this point, so they began playing Martin's trick-taker that is also - I was later told - a melder of Rummikub-type proportions: Doctor Science. Ian said he struggled with it, but seemed to pick up speed as they went. Unable to synchronise groups, we finished 1am Jailbreak and debated what to play next. Steve had now joined us for the duration as well, so we wanted something good for four but not too long. When I suggested Old London Bridge, to my surprise about 2/3rds of the whole room spontaneously intoned "Old London Bridge" in a deep, singsong voice. I was both alarmed and intrigued, so we jettisoned all other ideas and Steve set it up. 

I think Andrew has previously explained the rules so I won't regurgitate them here, but I really enjoyed this. Thematically it's entirely nonsensical - everyone builds their own bridge and bids for buildings - but it's speedy and interactive and different strategic approaches are available. Anja began her bridge with a bucolic park, and focused early energies on the chapel track, which determines the very common tie-breakers. All of us - except Pete I think, who was less wasteful - pushed previously-built buildings into the Thames to replace them with others, and Steve was most effective on the pink track, the name of which now escapes me. 

Anja pulled a fast one on Steve in the final round, giving the post its title. But it was Pete - the only player to complete their bridge - who was to triumph, as his sprint up the chapel track, highest-bidding cards and collection of cash saw him dwarf our efforts. 

Pete 50

Sam 42

Steve 35

Anja 26

They finished a crazy Ra around now as well. When I looked over in the first round, there was a solitary Ra tile out on Joe's bespoke mat, and yet Martin had a collection of tiles in front of him that suggested the entire game was nearly over. Fifteen of them!

I also heard Joe bemoaning his filthy luck, as various Disaster tiles emerged, turning his potential haul into a bag of Egyptian dog turds before his very eyes. Ian grabbed a snap of this horrifying ordeal for posterity.

Joe's anguish not pictured

Neither he nor Ian could catch Martin after that spectacular first round. 

Martin 48

Ian 29

Joe 28

And that was it for the night - it was already 11pm somehow so the social commuters made their way back to their cars and home again. Thanks all, it was constructive. 

Chieftain o' the Pudding Race

Games was back at Joe's house this week, with a fresh tablecloth ready for the hot breath of avid gamers, intent on fun. I confess I was super-tired before the fun could commence, but having missed last week I forced myself to attend - for a bit, anyway. 

When I descended the stairs, Martin and Adam T were already at the table, and Ian just removing his coat. With only Adam H now in the offing, we discussed what we could play, Someone mentioned we could just wait instead, but Joe pointed out that if we did that, Adam wouldn't arrive. And sure enough one round of Sushi Go was all it took to make him materialise, like Marley's meeple-loving ghost, out of the cool night air. 

Martin was already happily reminiscing about how shit the game is at this point, but Adam H was happy to be dealt in with seven random cards to score. There were quite a few jokes about how it was basically 7 Wonders without all the icons, but I don't remember them now. I dodged the competitive rolls of rice and concentrated on Nigiri, and an excess of puddings. It seemed to work. 

Sam 41
Joe 35
Adam T 33

Ian 31
Martin 27
Adam H 23

I was pleasantly surprised by my victory, but I have to concur that the game is pretty bland. "I could name a thousand better games for non-gamers!" Martin harrumphed. Then he thought for a moment and changed the number to a hundred, before anyone could challenge him. 

We split into two threes, with Joe, Ian and Adam H capering off around the globe in Expeditions and Martin, Adam T and I capering with marginally less frivolity towards Mordor in the Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking game.

What happened in Expeditions I am unsure, as I was busy being confounded by the sneaky chapter 14 in LotR: tFotR, where we make our way through Moria, confront the Balrog and curse Boromir's feeble heart once more (discarding the Mithril shirt to make up for his shortcomings). It was a 'Long' chapter, meaning there are multiple characters that need completing, across multiple rounds, and officially the ruling is that any mis-step means you restart the entire round. But the game also does allow you to just restart from where you had got to previously, and that's what we did. The rounds are interesting, but not for the first time I felt that the long chapters feel attritional and the 'doing characters twice' option detracts from an-already flimsy sense of narrative. But at least we completed it - sort of. Our initial triumph did involve leaving Pippin behind. "I don't give a shit about him" Martin confessed. Adam and I were more of a mind to bring him along though, so we played one last round, failed, and then announced we'd won anyway. Almost as though Gandalf has his own Truth Social feed. 

Expeditions finished now too: 

Adam H 22
Ian 20
Joe 15

With apologies I missed any late drama, as I was now wrapped up in the shenanigans of Martin's latest addition, Pumafiosi, a mini-Reiner with quite nice production and a lot of dickishness. The rhythm of it is sort-of trick-taking, but instead of the winner it's the second-strongest card that gets added to a hierarchy of points cards in the middle of the table. During around, these can get bumped down the ladder (minus points for being bumped) and you've some one-use special abilities to take advantage of. 

After ten tricks are played the rungs on the ladder score, and Adam T gets lots of points. My catastrophic middle round and Martin's feeble third round meant there was only ever one winner. 

Adam T 45
Martin 31
Sam 30

They'd now finished Expeditions and were playing Ra. 

And I was feeling the pace of all this fun and threatened to leave, so Martin coaxed a game of Jungo out of me. Adam took to this very quickly as well, winning the first round in no time before Martin took the second. Then Adam added the third and hit the two-rounds-wins victory objective! I do like Jungo. Any game where you get to say the word 'invoke' can't be all bad. 

Martin and Adam began setting up Agent Avenue as I headed for home, which is where Joe takes over the story...

Joe here, thanks Sam. Ra weaved its relentless way towards the end of the ancient Egyptian era, and it was, as it always is, gloriously tense. Ian was on course for the win, but a generous final epoch plus winning sun tiles gave me the late running. "I'm rubbish at Ra", sighed Adam H, in a similar intonation with which he'd announced "I love this game" after beating us at Expeditions earlier. 

Joe 60

Ian 44

Adam 27

By now Sam had gone, and both Adams made noises about leaving. In the end only AH did;  AT stayed, coaxed by the promise of So Clover. Martin threw a cardboard spanner into the works, brandishing Llama Llama, but as he began the rules, Adam wrinkled his nose and said "Shall we just play So Clover?" And so we did. 

We acquitted ourselves decently, with a score of 22/24, only undone by Ian's perfectly reasonable paring of coil with wind, which we all read to rhyme with binned, not bind. Doh! 

I was pleased with my clue of magazine to go with ammo and life. And with that, the bell tolled, and the lights faded on another Tuesday night. Earlier than is perhaps usual, but with a full Sunday of gaming in the offing, in the form of Decacon, we all needed to get some rest.

 

Lucky (thirty) sevens

I walked into Joe’s place on a relatively mild day between peaks of British summer and found myself walking into a game of Cross Clues with Joe, Sam, Katy, Adam T, Ian and Adam H. Before long it became clear that everyone were on very different frequencies when it came to giving clues. One misunderstanding followed another. “Club” for “weird/foot” was missed and my one contribution was also hopelessly wide of the mark as I thought “Solstice” would go with “mean/night” since mean can also mean “average.” Katy tried to dissuade us that the Solstice wasn’t the average night but too late. 

We didn’t even count up the score, that’s how badly we did.

 

With Martin on his way, we decided to give Cross Clues another go. This time we did better but still not amazing. Hats off to Adam T for his clue “diarrhoea” for “brown/lightning.” Classy. His clue “bite” for “angry/horse” sparked off a discussion about what angry horses are best known for: biting or kicking. But that’s all horse feathers. We did well enough to count up the score this time. 

22 out of 25

With Martin still en route, we broke out Flip 7 and took out the freeze cards. In fact, it was quite dick-move-free. Whenever someone got a “Flip Three” card, they almost always used it on themselves. And, in fact, it almost always worked. Especially if you were Ian who seemed to be blessed with a surfeit of bonus point cards.

Katy only scored in four rounds but on three of them, she clocked up 37 points. She also found herself concerned when Adam H shuffled the deck of cards just as she was about to draw another card. Convinced that the deck was now stacked against her, she asked the dealer (Adam T) to cut the deck before handing her a card. He did so. She went bust all the same.

Adam H managed to flip seven cards in one round and he’d run Ian a close second throughout until the last round. Ian decided to stick first and Adam just pushed his luck long enough for him to squeak a close win.

Adam H 209

Ian 203

Katy 144

Joe 128

Adam T 105

Andrew 95

Sam 0

By now Martin was here and we split into two groups at two separate tables. Sam, Martin, Adam T and Ian set off for the Shires in The Fellowship Of The Ring. I think I heard mention of starting on Chapter 10. Impressive but I've no idea how far through the game that is.

Katy, Adam H, Joe and myself indulged in the luxury of Ra - Pharaoh edition, with its chunky tiles and metal money. Katy got a brief overview of the rules, just to refresh her memory and then we began. 

Round one saw a lot of disasters and floods pulled from the bag. Adam and Katy were the last two players and they let tiles fill up and clear themselves out twice, due to the grim nature of what was on offer. 

Round two ended in a similar fashion,  with Katy the last active player insisting that it was more fun to play with yourself. 

By round three,  the Nile had pretty much dried up and I was regretting buying quite so many pharaohs. Also, I had very few buildings unlike Adam who had so many that Joe had to explain about stacking the same buildings on top of each other, you know, like they did in Ancient Egypt. 

At the end, Katy was delighted by her score and I was pleasantly surprised by mine. Joe said he usually did better than his and Adam admitted that he didn't really like Ra.

Katy 43

Andrew 41

Joe 33

Adam H 32

And so, I gathered up my belongings and set off at a sensibly early hour, leaving the rest of the evening in safe gaming hands.

Over to you, Sam.

*             *             *

In Tolkien-world things started out well, as I recall - not that I recall that much now. But I believe we cleared chapter 10 and Adam T read out the narrative intro for the next chapter. I don't remember that either, but it was either 11 or 12 where we ran into trouble, as it's a 'long' one: meaning there are multiple characters to complete and two of them were rather tricky: Boromir needed to win the last trick but couldn't be trusted with the ring, and someone else needed something crazy like a card of each rank. We - or Adam - pulled the latter off, but went wrong somewhere else and needed the Vest of Mithril or something to save us. But then we went wrong again anyway. Fellowships are work.

After Andrew left Martin tempted Adam T and and Katy into a game of Greed. I don't know what the mechanics are, but the name does a pretty good job on the theme.

...whilst Ian, Adam H and I showed Joe the ropes - ho ho - to Monkey Palace. For a reason that I missed, the rules weren't in the box and so we did a little hazarding around the finer points. The basic ones are easy: build a monkey palace, build your engine, get bananas. The result on the table was as impressive as ever.

Not sure if our slightly fudged rules favoured me, but I picked up a win as debutant Joe found himself up against three experienced simians. 

Sam 42

Adam 38

Ian 36

Joe 29

I don't know what happened in Greed, other than Martin was greediest:

Martin 160

Adam and Katy 155 each

Katy and the Adams now left for home, leaving just four of us to clover out the evening, which we attempted twice. Our first effort was a very solid 22/24, with only my clover muddying the waters.

We went again, which as everyone knows is always a terrible mistake. And so it proved here, with a shabby 18/24 thanks to a couple of dodgy red herrings and maybe some heat/game fatigue creeping in. Did like (Joe's?) essential for friend/oil though. 

The Mighty Ra

 I arrived at Joe's at the same time as Laura, who was back amongst the gamers for the first time in a while. Downstairs we found Ian and discovered that no one else was expected. For the second time in a week, we were a quartet. “Got any four player games?” I quipped.

After we discussed Ian’s recent charity walk (all the way from the centre to Snuff Mills) Dune Imperium was (half jokingly) suggested, but Laura wanted to ease herself back into game with something a little more accessible. We chose Ra. With only us around the table, finally it had enough space deserving of its opulence. As we were unpacking, Joe dropped the Ra piece on the table and it was so loud, it made me jump.

The first three tiles out of the bag were all Ra tiles, and we started to suspect we were in for a quick epoch. But then there were no Ra tiles, instead there were lots of buildings. Joe gets quite a collection which he refers to throughout as his “pension” - something to cash in, in his old age. Joe was the last player standing at the end of round one. He had two spaces on the auction track but the next Ra would end the round. He monologued for a few minutes about his options before successfully filling up the auction track.

In round two, I score no points at all, hoping that my Pharaohs and Niles will pay out big in round three. Joe is, again, last to still be buying stuff but finds himself cursed by four disaster tiles.

As we went into the last round, I had 13, 10, 9 as my bidding tiles. But we were all screwed by the bag. So many Nile Tiles! “So boring! It's just water,” complained Joe. I had 6 Nile tiles in front of me, Laura had 5, Ian 5, and even Joe (who avoided them) had 4. But Laura was able to pick up the.only flood tile of the whole epoch.

Laura 36

Joe 29

Andrew 26

Ian 20

We remarked on what a low scoring game it was as we bagged everything up.

Then we played 9 Lives, a trick taking game. We figured that it might be nice to play a trick taker with someone other than Martin winning. Joe thoughtfully sipped his beer with salt crystals, wondering aloud if it was salty enough and then Laura suggested he should shake it up before hand.

In 9 Lives, it’s a trick taking game where you guess how many tricks you’ll win, except the backs of the cards tell you which suit that card is, so it’s possible to tell if the other players will be able to follow your suit or not. The most difficult part of the game is trying to discern the 9s from the 4s. Joe mused along the lines of: If there is one part of a game’s design where you shouldn’t be making any radical decisions… it’s the numbers.

Joe 10

Ian 9

Andrew 6

Laura 3

It was fun. Clearly, not the same without Martin but still fun.

Then we played So Clover. Both Laura and I had our clovers ruined by unfortunate decoys. My “Shipping forecast” (for Evening/Station) was ruined by “weather” appearing on the fifth tile.

19 out of 24

With that, I was gone. They others were making the kind of noises people make when they have one more game in them, so maybe they’ll elucidate in the comments.

Psychic Failures

I was a little uneasy at arriving early at Joe’s this Tuesday, so I was glad when Ian cycled up at about the same time. And I needn’t have worried at all since Joe had already started the evening with a little Martini to keep him company. The bigger Martin(i) would be along soon, after Katy and Sam arrived, each with their own comments about the fine weather. Finally Adam H got here and, with no word from a potential Anja, we started gaming.

Since Katy wanted something gentle, we began with Take It Easy. Joe’s and Sam’s copies were used to allow all seven of us to compete, and Joe was caller. Today’s theme was Steely Dan songs, with Steely Dan on the stereo. For the atmos, you know. There was the usual agony and elation (mostly agony) and it ended with Adam winning a pretty close game.

Adam 209

Martin 190

Joe 184

Andrew 182

Katy 178

Sam 158

Ian 150

Then we split into two. Katy was still in the market for gentle games and was tempted to join Martin and Joe in a game of Renature. Because she likes animals.

Ian, Sam, Adam and I chose Ra over Hansa Teutonica (on the toss of a coin) and set out Joe’s luxurious version, complete with underwhelming round counter, which is about the size of a scrabble tile and really could have been omitted.

In round one, Ian was last player standing but lost out when the Ra track ended before he could sweep up everything available. Adam was in the same position in round two but he had four chances to pull Ra tiles, so he was fine. In round three, Adam was out first saying he thought he’d be last. I said he was crazy, thanks to this buildings, but turns out he was right. I had a good round two and pretty much had the same tiles in front of me at the end of the game, too.

Andrew 44

Sam 26

Ian 25

Adam 19

I went to the toilet and came back to find Misfit already out of its box. It was a typically crazy game. Adam began with a vertical column and it got worse from that. Ian had the first collapse, clearing the structure from the table entirely.

Sam got a text just as he was placing a piece and almost ruined his turn. Then Ian got the yips just as he was adding to an already impossible structure and then Adam had a tap-in to win the game. Sam, too, finished that round. Still not sure if that’s a tie.

Adam wins!

Renature also ended at this point, with Katy ruefully pondering if sitting "cuntside" of Martin was actually a benefit.

Joe 93

Martin 79

Katy 59

And with that, I was done. Still tired from my new job, I bailed early at only 9.30. Still had a great time though.

I’ll hand over to Sam to continue the blog…

*

We were still going strong when Andrew left and at Martin's insistence, played Cabanga. Luckily for all of us - especially Martin - Cabanga was good fun, a Nimmt-esque game of shedding cards as quickly as you can without getting 'Cabanga-ed' when others dump cards on you. I'd explain the rules but I'd forgotten I was meant to be finishing the blog (sorry Andrew/everyone) but it was fun and funny.

Ian won on the first round with zero points, followed by me, Joe, Adam and Katy. Martin was last with a whopping 22 - points are bad. Then Adam left and we played Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go To The Ghost Town. The rules are short and sweet but I forgot them anyway. Martin delivered a pizza and won!

I think we played Cabanga again - Joe won - before polishing off the night with the classic closer of So Clover, bringing in a reasonable but not amazing 16/24

Fun! Thanks all. And sorry for late reportage. 

Hourglass Vigour

 Tuesday at 7.40 and Joe answered his front door and let me in. As I entered his kitchen I saw that he, Ian, Martin and Sam had set up to play Gang of Dice, which is like high score in that you have to roll dice and you score according to certain criteria, such as “bust if you roll three odds” or “all the same value.” The trick is that you get to chose how many dice to roll. So, if “three of a kind” will bust you, then you can choose to roll only two dice with absolute confidence. Of course, your maximum score will only be twelve while other more luck-pushy players will roll more dice.

If you lose a round, you lose those dice to the winner and you have to buy them back. Your final score is money plus remaining dice. Sam started well, despite never being quite sure what score everyone had. Ian kept rolling well and then seeing Joe roll even better. Martin did astonishingly badly, and ended so far behind everyone that I’m obliged to use the old vidiprinter method of spelling out the score in brackets in case anyone thinks there’s been a mistake.

Joe 68

Sam 56

Ian 29

Martin 9 (nine)

“I can’t believe Knizia’s found something else to do with dice,” exclaimed Martin who enjoyed it, despite his display of misfortune.

Then we set up for a quick game of Kites while we waited for Gareth to arrive. In this game there are six egg timers and five cards in your hand. All you do is play a card from you hand that will allow you to flip an egg timer or two. We just had to make our way through the deck of cards while making sure that no egg timer runs out, and they all run at different speeds. It was a neat game, building to a climax of nervous timer-flipping. Gareth knocked on the door midgame, sparking a second of panic as we debated whether one of us dared answer the door in the face of six impatient hourglasses. Joe made the dash and Sam took his go for him until he got back.

But right at the end, only a few cards from victory, Joe didn’t have an orange card and the final grain of sand trickled through the neck and into the lower ampule.

Then we were a sextet so we split into two. People with three-letter names played Thunder Road while people with six-letter names set up a game of San Francisco. I didn’t follow Thunder Road much, except for noting Sam’s exclamation of “Holy shit, Ian.” In the final reckoning, Ian didn’t make it to the end of the game and Sam was immobilised, so Joe won.

As for sunny San Fran, Martin went for skyscrapers and I loved workers and cable cars. Gareth held out for a particular foundation, always making sure he was able to pick up at a moment’s notice, but it never came out. The pivotal moment was when Martin picked up some cards just to stop Gareth from getting them, even though they didn’t help him. That certainly stopped Gareth but did it also allow me to sneak past Martin?

Andrew 12

Martin 11

Gareth 9.5

Then we played Spot while Thunder Road ended. Gareth built up a huge pile of bones that gave him extra rolls of dice. In fact he had so many that when I discarded a bone, I put it in his pile since I thought it was the supply. However, he wasted 11 of those 12 bones trying to get a one so he could instantly win the game. With one bone left, he stopped, unwilling to go bust. But the next turn, he picked up loads more bones and then easily rolled a one the next chance he got.

Gareth 6

Martin 3

Andrew 3

Then we were all together so we rearranged our seats and began again. Gareth, Sam and I played Mille Fiori at speed while Ian, Joe and Martin played Ra. Martin seemed distraught for most of the game, convinced that Joe was going to slaughter them all. It was close but Joe won again.

Joe 50

Martin 47

Ian 30

Me, Sam and Gareth banged out a speedy game of Milli Fiori. Sam sped into an early lead, hitting 69 points after round 2 while Gareth and I languished in the 20s. But before long we had caught him up. My final move strung together three “take another turn” options for enough points to get me into second.

Gareth 197

Andrew 192

Sam 183

Then we banged out a quick Not That Movie: five rounds, but only one perfect. 32 points, I think. No idea if that’s good or not.

With that, I left them to their final game: So Clover. And what a game it was. Ian’s clover had, I’m told, so many interchangeable words that it only scored one point!

Thanks all. See you next week.