When the going gets turf

 This week GNN returned to Joe’s studio as a venue. When Joe let me in, we tried to remember the last time there’d been a games night here. Something to do with a birthday and going for pizza, maybe just after the lockdown.

But enough reminiscing - in Joe’s studio were Pete, Adam H, Ian and Martin mid-way through a game of Abluxxen. Joe ate while he played and I sat down to watch. I discovered,as I did, that I couldn’t remember the rules. Everyone seemed to have a lot of cards in their hands, but as the game neared its end, everyone started shedding. Martin played eight 3s and then seven 6s in two rounds. This was pivotal as the game ended soon after.

Martin 12

Adam9

Joe 4

Ian -1

Pete -2

Then we split into two groups. Joe, Ian and Adam played Azul while Martin, Pete and I played Samurai. This Knizia game appeared on GNN some years back (quick check, oh my god, 11 years ago) and it’s simple strategy found some favour. Now Martin has a copy, it’s back on the table.

The two games, side by side, meant the room was pervaded by thoughtful silences and frustrated sighing. Samurai, in particular, saw some hefty pauses for thoughts. My best move involved me putting down two tiles and clearing out the Edo area, picking up a rice bale and the other two removed from the board because of tied results. 

Before long, the struggle was to try to place your pieces without leaving an opportunity for another player to finish surrounding a piece and pick it up.

1= Pete

1= Andrew 

2. Martin 

I enjoyed it and Martin seemed happy with his acquisition, although he blamed his last place on the fact that his best tiles didn't come out until the end. 

Across the table, Azul went into a rare sixth round. After Martin commented he'd never seen that before, he was assured that this was Azul “on another level”. They didn't specify if this level was higher or lower.

Adam 91

Joe 80

Ian 78

Next was talk of another couple of 3 player games before Winner's Circle/Royal Turf but I was keen for a big 6-player finale before I left so Winner's Circle (the tiny Japanese edition) was brought out. In this game a die is rolled and that tells us which category we can use when moving a horse of our choice.

In order to best appreciate the die-rolling aspect, the dice arena or, if you will, dice stadium Das Exclusive was brought to the table and so we were given the rare treat of playing with a dice arena larger than the game itself. 

We played by the original Royal Turf rules, in which the horses are drawn randomly but each colour has certain characteristics. White, for example, starts in pole position and has one side that's  got one category that's over powered while the others are dismal, while Orange (starts at the back) was balanced on all categories. 

It didn't work quite as well as Winner's Circle style random horses since the horses at the back couldn’t move until the horses at the front did, giving those horses are distinct advantage.

After round one, I was in the lead with £550 from what I thought were some shrewd decisions. Then, after the discussion about how slanted the game seemed to be in favour of those at the head of the pack, the contrarian in me wanted to win by choosing a different path. In the third and final round, I chose horses further back and foud myself struggling to keep them out of last, while the usual suspects sped off to a quick win.

Pete won in the kind of rags-to-riches story that Hollywood would love. After round one, he’d done so badly that he was, technically, $100 pounds in debt.

In the final round, though, he demonstrated almost psychic form-reading abilities. He bet on the top three and pushed himself into first.

Pete $2000

Martin $1800

Joe $1450

Ian $1200

Adam $1150

Andrew $1150

He even magnanimously agreed to pay off the $100 he owed after round one - after he’d worked out he would still be in first.

At this point, I set off, happy and satisfied for another week.

Thanks all.

Mined over matter

The Gods smiled down on two weary gamers, as the planets aligned and the clouds parted and other things happened in the sky and Sam and I were able to fit two games evenings into two real evenings. And there’s the official GNN tomorrow! We are living the high life !

One Sunday we played a new game, The Hive. No photos from this day since my phone was across the room, plugged into the speakers, pretending to be a juke box. The Hive is a simple strategy game (or maybe it’s very complicated and I just haven’t twigged it yet) whereby the aim is to place and move your hexagonal pieces so that they surround your opponents queen bee.

The trick is to trap her long before that happens, since a piece cannot move if it breaks the hive. It’s intriguing, but it needs more table time. I’m sure there’s more to learn. The end is usually an anti-climax, since it can be clear who’s won several moves before it’s happened, without anything you can do about it.

Sam won three times, and then he won at 7 Wonders, with Dirk pushing me into third place! Is there anything more humiliating than coming third in a two-player game?

But that’s enough about Sunday. Again today, the two of us met up for more games! And again, there was a new game on the table. Sutter’s Mill has been sitting in Sam’s games cupboard almost longer than the Gold Rush lasted. Now was it’s chance to shine. Would it be 24 carat, or fool’s gold? I didn’t care, since my character had a cool hat and a shifty look. Good start.

Since it was our first play, any thought of strategy was secondary to working out what did what. The rules weren’t great, with large chunks repeated throughout. But the game is clear enough, once you’ve worked out what “conducting business” means. It means getting gold according to how buildings you have. You get buildings by combining men and cards in order to have the most influence in them.

And that’s how Sam played it: he owned buildings, even if they weren’t actually useful at the time, in order to get gold for buildings. I owned buildings which got bonuses for mining gold at a particular stage in the game.

Then, after mining for gold, the trick is to get your meeples and cards out of town as much as possible. Preferably leaving a low-valued card and one lonely meeple in town once the vein of gold has been exhausted and the game ends. Anything left in town counts against you. Gold and cards you managed to save from town get you points. We counted up, and despite the rules assuring us that ties were rare, it couldn’t have been closer.

Andrew 116
Sam 115

Sam had more gold, but I got all my cards out in time. An interesting game. Perhaps better with three, which would make it harder to keep track of what your opponent is up to.

After this, I requested Samurai, which doesn’t get enough love here in GNN. This time we played strictly according to the rules, which made the game drier with far fewer opportunities to parachute in plenty of troops at once (not that Edo-period Japan had invented the parachute. Or perhaps they had, but they certainly hadn’t invented the aeroplane, making parachutes somewhat redundant).

So we patiently built up our forces, and a lot of pieces were taken off the board as many battles ended in a draw, but Sam was a clear winner.

And so we finished the game and the evening. And there’s more to come tomorrow!

Under Prussia

Sam and I met up for a brain storming session for future writing projects and after a whole hour (including a meal), we decided to treat ourselves to a game or two. Or five.

We chose Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India. We had both prepared for this new game by watching an introduction to it on BGG where a silky voiced Australian promised us “delicious options”. How could we turn that down?

After we scratched our heads over another inadequate rule book, we brought up a player aid on BGG and used that to guide ourselves through the rules and we were off.

It’s an interesting take on the worker placement genre, whereby you only have one worker (the architect) and while you can build buildings anywhere, you need to have the architect present to build those all important palaces. Because what do palaces make? Prizes. Palaces in a city earn you money, and at the end of the game, money decides the winner (unless someone was smart enough to build a seventh palace before their opponent(s)).

Sam, after a shaky start, took the honours in its inaugural game.

Sam 10
Andrew 7

After this, we decided to break out good old A Castle For All Seasons. Since it’s already gaining favour for it’s depth in the two player options, this now needs no introduction. I hogged the market and then hoarded money like Ebenezer Scrooge after the Ghost Of Christmas Future told him about a stock market crash. Sam went for the unfinished buildings bonus and silvers. In the end, I just edged it.

Andrew 81
Sam 80

After this, I suggested Samurai. It’d been a long time since I’d played it, and it showed. I was comprehensively beaten, with Sam winning on two categories of items, and us drawing on a third. The only positive thing I can take is that Samurai isn’t leaderboard, since I can’t work out how to convert the final result into points. Phew.

Then we brought Campaign to the table. I have a dim memory of playing this in the 1970s with my brother. At the time, it seemed like a dazzling new variant on chess but now, with eurogames offering a new gaming experience (and with my own greater appreciation for chess) it just seems like a hollow strategy game. I also remember thinking that “Prussia” was a made-up name for a country, and I was surprised when I found out it wasn't. That was the first time I found out that a country could disappear off the map.

Each player has their pieces and they roll a dice to see how many movement points they get. In other words, the player who rolls highest, on average, will win. It looked nice and, I suppose, for 1973, it was a brave attempt at something new. It hasn’t aged well, though.

We abandoned the game in favour of something else.

And that something else was 7 Wonders. Quick, exciting, and we both knew it well. Dirk was up for it, too.

Sam went down the “no-resources” route, relying on Dirk and me to bail him out. And also relying on military might, along with a little bit of everything. I threw in my lot with blue buildings (including the palace) while I offloaded sciences onto Dirk, just so Sam couldn’t build them and exploit his wonder’s benefit.

It was an odd game. There seemed to be a lot less resources around for anyone, meaning I couldn’t build my wonder until late, and Dirk barely got started on his. In the final tally, the Palace came through again, just pushing me ahead of Sam who, at one point, had serious fears of being overtaken by Dirk.

Andrew 49
Sam 46
Dirk 33

Saturday Night Farmer

Last night Sally and I made our way to Mark and Katie's for our irregular games match-ups. I'd brought a few 4-player options, but as Katie's son Jack was there - and willing to participate - we ended up playing blast from the past Carcassone. Once upon a time this felt the promised land of gaming, only to pale slightly as more complex, or thematically interesting games took its place. But it still retains something - even if your strategy is pretty much decided by luck, it's so simple to pick up and play, and looks lovely. My recent match-up with my own boys meant I was a little fresher than the others:

Sam 98
Mark 80
Sally 52
Katie 47
Jack 35

Carcassone cake, courtesy of Toniemn

After that most of us we still perky, but fancied something a bit faster-moving, so Mark brought Las Vegas to the table. This is even more down to chance, and lady luck smiled on me - as Katie and Jack fought an intergenerational battle, I managed to pick up some hefty first places (- their dice were tied, meaning they cancelled each other out). In mitigation of Sally, she at this point was trying to stay awake:

Sam $540,000
Mark $350,000
Katie $320,000
Sally $240, 000
Jack $130,000

Lots of dice, courtesy of diddle74

Full of good food, games, alcohol and company, we collapsed into bed.

But wait. Today was Father's day, so after a slap-up breakfast Mark and I found ourselves with the special treat of a couple of hours to ourselves as the ladies took the kids out. We decided to fill it with a couple of games, and Jack - now slightly jaded by the pirate-themed Soft-Play world - joined us.

First up was Samurai. Andrew and I can vouch for how more-ish this game is. And I think Steve can too, as he trounced us if I recall. But at the same time as having a simple rule-set it also has the head-scratching element of trying to work out your optimal move. Mark really liked it, though his appreciation was often expressed in cries of despair.

1 Sam
2 Mark
3 Jack

It was really close between the three of us, so we played again:

1 Sam
2 Mark
3 Jack

Again it was very tight, and Mark and I were probably lucky that Jack was focusing half his attention on his laptop.

Thanks, Club Amatent

Finally we bashed out three games of No Thanks. I won two and Mark the other, as Jack placed second each time. We all had at least one completely duff round, scoring overall (over 3 games):

Sam 126
Jack 127
Mark 184

magyar kiadás

And that was that. On the KMSS table (recording the Saturday night games only) I surge into a healthy lead as the incessant nerdiness finally pays dividends. Admittedly not the kind of dividends that pay for anything, anywhere, ever, but I'll take what I can get at this stage,

KMSS						Points
Sam		1	1	2	1	5
Mark		2	2	3	3	10
Katie		3	4	1	2	10
Sally		4	3	4	4	15

Introducing the smallest meeple in town

This week's games night saw a return to Anja and Steve's sooner than perhaps anyone could have guessed. Despite their son being just two weeks old, they decided to risk it and host a games night, and so we all got to say hello to the soon-to-be board game champion of the world (perhaps). Also in attendance was Jon and the non-playing Morag along with their also-non-playing child. A very family feel to games night for once.

But once all that talk of milk teeth and best nappies was over (something like that, I expect. I wasn't listening) we sat down to play. Seven of us: Jon, Anja, Steve, Joe, Sam, Adam, and myself played Incan Gold. This was Anja's only chance of the evening to get points on the leaderboard, and she played it well. It was also the first game of Incan Gold that we can remember when all five artefacts came out.

Anja 33
Sam 32
Jon 29
Joe 20
Steve 20
Andrew 20
Adam 11

At this point, Hannah arrived and Anja retired for the evening, and we split into two groups. Jon was keen to play Blood Bowl and he recruited Joe and Adam to his cause. Meanwhile, Sam and I wanted to see how Samurai played with more than two players, and Hannah and Steve agreed to try it.

Sam explained the simple rules, and we put out the big four-player, four-island version of the board. The main difference between the two and four player versions is the amount of AP. With so many options, trying to whittle your choice down to one can take a while. While the other table hummed to the excited commentary from Jon, our table was mostly lost in thought, with the occasional "whose go is it?" breaking the silence.

At the end of the first game, newcomer Hannah came away with a commanding win.

1. Hannah
2. Andrew
3. Sam
4. Steve

Since the Blood Bowl was still in full swing, we set up and played again. This time, I clustered most of my tiles on the main island of Honshu, and it seemed to work.

1. Andrew
2. Hannah
3. Sam
4. Steve

With Joe, Jon and Adam still in battle, and Steve enlisted to Baby Patrol, Hannah, Sam and I tried a new but simple game called Can't Stop. In this, four dice are rolled. Pairs of dice are made to give two values, and each time those values are rolled, the player moves their counter along that particular value on the board.

In a later roll they can later nominate a third value, but once they've done that, they're stuck with those three. Rolling the four dice and not being able to make up any of those values means they are bust and return to wherever they were at the start of the turn. Otherwise, they can stop once they feel they've pushed their luck enough.

I loved it. It's a perfect example of Good Dice. We didn't have long enough to finish the game, so it remains non-leaderboard, but for the record Sam was doing best, followed by Hannah, then me.

On the other table, the blood had dried up and gone all flakey. The final scores were

Joe 35
Jon 33
Adam 23

On the form table, Sam holds on to first place, while Adam can be grateful for those tied scores in Incan Gold, otherwise his last place in a seven player game would have sent him second to bottom.

						Points
Sam	3	3	2	2	1	11
Andrew	2	2	4	1	3	12
Hannah	2	1	4	2	5	14
Adam	5	3	3	2	1	14
Anja	1	1	3	5	5	15
Steve	4	4	4	2	1	15
Joe	1	4	4	4	3	16
Jon	2	3	5	5	5	20

On the Division, however, we find that Adam's overall performance this season has been the best in terms of points scored. Anja comes out top in points ratio.

In Bracknell, Paul was away helping to form a new government in Italy. Instead, everyone's imaginary friend Dirk took his place in two games of 7 Wonders. James won both by giving Chris a Vulcan mind-meld and a dead arm.

James - 53
Chris - 48
Dirk – 24

James - 49
Chris - 48
Dirk - 40

Sam, you're a Samurai

As is usually the way towards the end of the week, there is an impromptu games night for any stragglers who can't make it through the weekend without some kind of supplement. And, as is usually the way, it was Sam and myself.

We began with a new game, Samurai. For me, this had three things going for it: Reiner Knizia, Japan and hexagons. It's a very simple yet very confrontational strategy game. Various black pieces are scattered throughout Japan and each player has to have the highest value numbers on adjacent hexagons when each piece is surrounded. Then you can claim the piece. There are three types of pieces, and the player who has won in most categories wins the game.

For example, in the first game I had most of two types, compared to Sam's one. And then that was reversed in the second game.

It was simple enough to get your head round quite quickly but deep enough that there's a decent amount of thinking to be done. It remains to be seen how it scales up to more players, but I'm going to guess it'll do better than Tzolk'in.

After this, we decided that it was early enough for another game, but too late to learn any more rules. So I suggested Alhambra. Why on Earth I chose that, with Sam's record, I don't know. I'm going to have to start carrying round my spreadsheets on my phone in future. Anyway, Sam got off to a flyer, and built a ten-point wall before the first scoring round.

Then Sam really turned on the razzle dazzle by completing his wall with a handful of tiles still to go. This meant he couldn't add to his Alhambra, but by now, he was already comfortable clear of me and Dirk who were pretty much neck and neck until the final score.

Sam 142
Andrew 110
Dirk 87

Then we played Biblios. Sam ended by collecting four dice, giving him a win so complete that he exclaimed in victory “I am Mr Biblios”. Not exactly “We came, we saw, we conquered” but still, a neat encapsulation of the joys of winning.

Sam 13
Andrew 3