Quadruple ‘A’ gaming

 “Who would have thought, six months ago, that we’d still be doing games nights online?” Martin asked as we logged onto our rather choppy Discord server. Certainly, we’ve come a long way. Tonight we were six in number: Martin, Katy, Adam H, Adam T, Andy and myself (“Too many ‘A’s,” complained Katy.

First we played 7 Wonders, as it’s somehow now almost a reflex action. Martin found himself unable to change his mind over his choice of card and asked Adam H to wait until he’d sorted it out. Adam did so, despite it ruining his “average thinking time” statistic. Andy went big on military and won. Adam T found some solace in the fact that he at least beat Martin.

Andy 62

Andrew 53

Adam H 51

Katy 50

Adam T 47

Martin 40

Then three of the ‘A’s left for one Google Hangout to play Kingdom Builder while Katy, Martin and Adam T set up on another Hangout for a game of Ninety Nine. This game ended

Martin 310

Adam T 228

Katy 43

In Kingdom Builder, Adam and I make the same mistake. Adam made it first, when I was distracted by sorting out my drinks which is why I didn’t learn from his failure. But while Adam was able to bounce back, I lay moribund and spent the last third of the game building as quickly as I could to keep things moving on.

Adam H 66

Andy 55

Andrew 34

With Ninety Nine unfinished, Andy suggested we play Lucky Numbers, a simple tile placing game in which the numbers in the grid have to increase in value from left to right and top to bottom. Easy to pick up and enjoyable enough that we played two on the bounce. Adam won both times.

With Ninety Nine still unfinished, we had a choice: another game of Lucky Numbers or a return to Rallyman GT. We went for Rallyman GT, only to have Martin pop into our Hangout asking if we’d finished before we’d even got to the first corner. Seeing as how we were a whole lap away from finishing, he went off and the three of them played Kingdom Builder. This was, apparently, Katy’s first go at the game since the old Roll For The Soul days.

Martin 70

Adam T 47

Katy 43

As for Rallyman GT, I think we all span off and it started to rain (immediately after Adam crashed. Coincidence? I think not), requiring that we all make a pit stop to change tires.

After I spin off, I have some catching up to do.

1st Andy

2nd Andrew

3rd Adam

I left after this game, but the remaining five stayed around for a game of For Sale…

Andy 59 

Katy 56 

Martin 53 

Adam H 48 

Adam T 38

After this, the three worst placed players left and the two top players battled it out in a game of Chakra…

Katy 14

Andy 8

Kingdom Rebuilt (in beta)

I logged on to Discord around twenty minutes late, with a game of For Sale in full swing with Martin, Ian, Andy, Adam H and Katy. I let them chat in the background while I sorted out my candles and alcohol.

Martin won, having spent on average only 1 for his cards. And having spent least thinking time, he pointed out.

Martin 61

Andy 55

Adam H 48

Ian 45

Katy 43

After this it was almost 8, and we were expecting more arrivals. But time waits for no game, especially when that game is Kingdom Builder in beta on BGA. Me, Ian, Adam H and Martin swiftly leave choppy old Discord for the sanctuary of a Google Hangout, only to be followed by Steve who’d just arrived and didn’t quite understand the exclusive nature of our little enclave. He is dismissed back to another Google Hangout where he, Anja, Adam T, Andy and Katy played 7 Wonders twice with Steve winning both times. In fact, everyone replicated their standings twice.

Steve 59

Adam T 58

Anja 48

Katy 41

Andy 31

Steve 61

Adam T 57

Anja 55

Katy 54

Andy 37

Kingdom Builder was a quiet game. Banter was at a minimum, as you’d expect in such a clash of the Titans. If Titans used barns and paddocks to gain territory. I don’t think they did. The beta program worked fine except for when we drew a grass card and it told us we “must build on a Grass.”

When Adam played his final house, I still had ten left. Never stood a chance. Good to play KB again, though.

Martin 63

Adam H 61

Andrew 38

Ian 31

We change Google hangouts, but I’m too busy pouring myself another drink and Katy, Martin Ian and Adam T zip off for a game of American Bookshop. This game is notable for the mid-game update posted by Martin with a quote from Katy “If I was allowed to touch you, Adam, I’d touch you and not in a nice way.” It was notable enough that Joe texted us about it when he got the notification from Discord.

Meanwhile, we (Steve, Anja, Adam H, Andy and me) played Rallyman GT, which was new to most of us so we got a rules explanation from Andy B. I led at first but was swiftly overtaken by everyone. Anja was first to spin off the track so at least I was no longer in last. There was a lot of downtime, and I worried how long this would go on for as we turned the third corner after about half an hour. By the end, Andy crossed the finishing line and then he estimated another ten minutes before we all end. I span out, and got frustrated. I creep across the line in fourth. And I showed such promise.

Andy 25

Adam 18

Steve 15

Andrew 12

Anja 10

In the time we took to play that, American Bookshop finished. Not sure who won, nor if Adam T ever got touched or not.

They then banged off a triplet of Eggs of Ostrich once Ian had left (Adam T 10, Katy 8 Martin 4 and then Adam T 15, Martin 12, Katy 4 then finally Martin 13, Katy 11, Adam 9) before they joined us for 7 Wonders. I got a phone call and decided to bow out, as did Martin and Katy. The remaining players played twice.

Adam T 53

Adam H 45

Andy 41

Adam H 66

Andy 54

Adam T 42

Well done to all. See you next week.

Token Gestures

The alternate Thursday weekly Old Fart club assembled last night with Chris, Paul J and myself comparing beard-growing capacities whilst we waited for Andrew. I suggested if we started a game he'd turn up, but even that wasn't necessary: the moment we navigated to boardgamearena, Mr E appeared, fashionably late and freshly-shaved. Or that's what it looked like anyway. The light was dim.

Our first game was Rallyman GT. This is a pretty straightforward racing game of laying out gear dice to move along the track - you can roll one at a time, and potentially halt your progress before you hit a certain number hazards (which would mean a loss of control: not good) or push your luck and keep rolling; hoping you don't roll that critical hazard. Or you can really push your luck and go Flat Out: roll all your dice at once and hope for the best. The benefit of doing so is that - as long as you haven't lost control - you get a focus token for every die you rolled, and these can be used on future turns to pay for a die result, and avoiding rolling it at all. That's pretty much it, except some corners restrict speed and some track restricts space. Everyone fell foul of a hidden danger - hidden in that either the interface or (more likely) my explanation was slightly off. All my Focus tokens simply vanished at one point, which was slightly irksome.

We all span off at one point or another - Paul most of all, as he kept going flat out to try and catch us and getting pretty much shat on by fate. Andrew cruised around as though on a Sunday drive and won by a country mile:

1 Andrew
2 Chris
3 Sam
Did not finish: Paul*

*Paul sacrificed his last two turns so we could wrap up and move on. It was fun, but I think it's a game that's better in the room - unlike our next game, the online aspect seemed to actually slow it down.

And the next game was of course 7 Wonders. Andrew had to dash off on a mission of mercy, so the three of us blasted through two quick games. In the first, Chris built almost no resource cards at all and worried that he'd made a mistake. But he hadn't - a convincing win despite having to buy almost every brick and beam of his city from his neighbours. Astonishing.

I won the next one though, so there.

Then with Andrew back in the virtual room, we sashayed our way through 4-player Kingdomino. Andrew was left to build mountain tiles completely unmolested, and by the time we realised our mistake(s), he'd claimed the win. I was gutted - I had convinced myself I was on for a subsequent Kingdomino victory, but no!

Andrew's bar-chart approach, right

Final scores

With the hour approaching ten, I bowed out. I will leave Andrew to take you through all that happened next....

*            *            *

We ended with Quantum, for which Paul needed a litle rules refresher but we were otherwise in like Flynn. I started badly and never improved. I rolled a 1, 2 and 4 and thought "aha, I can easily get some of those 8 cubes down by changing the 4 to a 5." Except the nearest planets to my home were all nines and with a two and a one on board, it would take forever to reach an eight. Instead, I spent my time attacking whoever was in first and totally failing to get a cube down at all. Shocking.

Paul played very well. We had to remind him about aggression getting him two dominance points when he already had four, thus allowing him to put two cubes down at once, but he needed no help at all to set up his last move in such a way that he couldn't be stopped, even though I thought I had when I relocated one of his cubes. He just warped somewhere else and left his five dice trundle over to join it.

Paul wins!
Andrew and Chris joint last, according to BGA but Chris only had one cube left and I had all four.

Thanks for that, guys. See you soon.