Everyone meet in San Francisco

 The rain that had peppered Bristol’s streets faded away in the evening, allowing walkers and cyclists alike the chance to converge on Joe’s kitchen for another night of games.

Before I'd even arrived, I was informed of an early game between Joe and Sam of Crokinole which was won by Joe.

I had to take a detour to a pharmacy so my ETA went back to 8pm and when I finally arrived, they (Joe, Adam T, Sam, Martin and Ian) were just finishing a game of Money.

Martin won, top of a crazy spread of scores that left Joe bemused as to what exactly he did so wrong. 

Martin 840

Adam 510

Ian 280

Sam 210

Joe 40

We were currently a six and we were expecting Katy at 9, dashing over from her book club. What could we play in an hour? Around The World In 80 Days was mooted, but probably too long with six.

Instead, Ian,  Sam and Joe played Foundations of Metropolis. A game I still haven't played but looks like area-control mixed with tetris. 

Adam, Martin and I pretended to think about what to play but, with a copy of Impulse on the table, it was never in doubt. 

We set up with only the slimmest of rules refreshers needed. We began in quite a generous mood, I put a draw card on the “impulse” (the communal row of cards we can all use) that allowed us to all take more cards into our hands and this seemed to set a trend. Adam even checked the rules regarding whether a player can draw more cards if they're at the hand limit. 

Over on Foundation, Ian made some disparaging remark about Joe not having any money. Sam, meanwhile, cried out “tear down those schools!” with delight. In the end, Joe upends Ian’s dismissive attitude towards the poor with a win.

Joe 105

Sam 101

Ian 86

As for Impulse, we were pretty close together until Martin attacked Adam and landed on 12 points - the level from which he usually pushes on to the game-winning 20-point mark. I had to do something so, after Adam sadly defended himself against further attacks from me, I used up most of my cards and all of my plan in one big push for victory. I got as far as 16 before I stalled. Still, I told myself, if Martin doesn’t reach 20 points, I’m a certain winner!

What a delusional fool I was.

Martin 20

Andrew 16

Adam 7

Now Katy was here. I don’t remember if there was a slight staggering in the end of games or if fate just kept us in the same groups, but Katy joined Sam, Joe and Ian for a delightful romp of Around The World In 80 Days. Martin, Adam and I decided on another old familiar, San Francisco.

This meant that one group was playing a game in a location that appearing in the other group’s game. I don’t think that’s happened since Wallenstein and Castles of Burgundy were played on the same night.

In fact, we noticed that 80 Days contained a lot of locations with games named after them (London, Yokohama etc…). We considered a variant whereby landing in a location meant you had to all actually play that game. The longest board game in the world!

We started at about the same time, with Katy promising us that she’d let us know when they arrive in San Francisco.

As for the games, Joe spent 12 days going from Bombay to Calcutta on an express elephant. Ian, for the record, was first to get to San Francisco and the first to return to London. [spoilers for the original novel] And he didn’t even need the International Date Line quirk to succeed [/spoilers]

Ian 72

Katy 73

Joe 90

Sam stuck in New York

As for the real San Francisco, it was all about Martin. Whatever I tried, nothing seemed to stop him from picking up massively beneficial cards. He built skyscrapers, completed rows, got architect tokens. Adam and I were reduced to fighting over majority points for most workers in a row. My two skyscrapers at least stopped it looking like I hadn’t even tried.

Martin 16½

Adam 8

Andrew 7

At this point, not quite ten o'clock, I chose the sensible option and left. I missed the rousing finale of 80 Days but got the scores from Sam in a late night message.

Then I learnt about their two attempts at So Clover. The first ended 31/36 but was notable for Joe’s clue of Dildo for double/end as “it was the only thing I could think of with two ends.”

Then they tried again with 34/36! Oh, So Closver!

Thanks all. Special as always.

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.

Ablazin' Saddoes

 This week I arrived at a shamefully late 8.20, havong already received photos of the group playing Cross Clues twice, scoring 19 and then 22. As I finally walked into Joe's kitchen, I found a place set for me at a game of San Francisco. I was up against Martin and Gareth - the same opponents I'd had last time I played. Meanwhile, Ian, Joe, Sam and Adam T sat at the other end of the table  playing Oriflamme Ablaze. I have no idea about what this game involves (or what the name means) except a lot of cards, and I forgot to take a photo. All I know is, towards the end, someone said “Joe played a trap!” and trapper Joe replied “So I get a coin.”

It was probably more exciting than that. For Ian, at least.

Ian 14

Adam 13

Joe 11

Sam 5 

Sam appeared to be distracted by the Prince’s expression, saying “he looks like a cross between John Cusack and a stupider John Cusack”

In San Francisco, Martin built an early skyscraper (on the harbourside. Very nice) and never looked back. The foundation cards came out fast, such that we were down to the last foundation and only a couple of rows had been completed. I didn’t finish any rows at all, so most of my points came from builders.

Martin 10

Andrew 8.5

Gareth 8

The game was over so fast that, when Oriflamme Ablaze ended and they were considering a game of So Clover, we insisted that we were only minutes from ending. Eventually, they chose Cross Clues which began with Joe giving a clue to the wrong space. Disaster was averted since luckily Adam was currently holding the card for that particular space.

Martin, Gareth and I joined in half way through, with the caution that they hadn’t made a mistake so far. However, Martin soon noticed that two cards had been put down in the wrong place. They insisted the right co-ordinates had been clued, though.

25 out of 25

A perfect score, if not a perfect way of getting there.

Then we split up again. Adam felt he could stay for one more and Mille Fiori seemed to be about the right duration. Martin, Sam and I agreed. Gareth expressed an interest in Thurn & Taxis with Joe and Ian joining him.

Joe 26

Ian 14

Gareth 12

As we began Mille Fiori, we contemplated Katy’s recent record-breaking score and if anyone would get close. In the end, no one did. After everyone scoring two points each on their first turn, Adam got off to a flyer, reaching 69 points at the end of round 2 while I was in second with 22.

But soon the deficit narrowed. I managed to do the move that Sam wanted, much to his dismay. Instead he did a multi-move mega-turn which made me very glad I stopped him doing what he had planned.

No one monopolised any area, leading to a close set of scores. When Martin suddenly ended the game Sam reacted with anguish because if he’d known the game was so close to finishing, he’d have played a different card and could have won the game.

Martin 178

Sam 176

Adam 167

Andrew 160

Then we ended with a quick hit of Hit. Martin was in a good situation as he finished the deck but he couldn’t resist drawing the final card. It made him go bust and gave me an unexpected win.

Andrew 84

Martin 75

Sam 66

Adam 55

Adam and Ian left and we reformed into a five-player group.

Then we sped through a game of Rapido. Sam led throughout, I chiselled my way into second, newcomer Gareth was behind me, ahead of Martin and Joe who would lose points almost as quickly as they gained them.

I should’ve bumped off Sam when he was within rolling a pair of twos for a win, but I thought he was more likely to go bust, so I got greedy and went for points. Sam then rolled a double three.

Sam 21

Andrew 14

Gareth 9

Joe/Martin 3

 

Then we ended with So Clover. Very close to a perfect score. Our bette noir was a clever clue from Joe. Too clever, it turns out. His clue was “Harvest” for “Nail/Young” which was actually had at one point, wondering if that’s the sort of thing Joe would write. Alas, we went with “Young/Heart” because “Heart of Gold” is on the album.

I struggled with mine, being the last to finish. I couldn’t think of a clue for “Ghost/Cookie” (although now I think “monster” might have worked) and instead went with “Crumbs” but luckily they got it, even though another clue “Garibaldi” could’ve matched with “Cookie”. I’d actually written it for “chocolate/soldier” leading Joe to pontificate “Garibaldis aren’t chocolate but maybe Andrew doesn’t know that.” I didn't. I'd been thinking of Bourbon. Got my European dynasties mixed up again. But they got it in the end.

28 out of 30

And then we were done. Thanks all. That was a joy.

Challengers Accepted

 7.50 on a rainy Tuesday evening and six gamers were grouped around a kitchen table: Joe (host), Sam, Martin, Gareth, Ian and myself. “I have to play San Francisco,” insisted Martin, sounding like some cardboard junkie desperate for a fix. But it was because he’d written a review of the game and needed some photos of it mid-play.

Since there were an even number of us Joe suggested we begin with Challengers. In this game everyone plays two-player games against each other in a tournament format and the idea of each game is to “capture the flag” and you do that by playing cards from your deck. If you have a number of equal or higher value then you take the flag, and any defeated cards go onto your “bench”. The trouble is, if you run out of cards or fill up your bench, then you lose.

There are more rules than that, but it’s basically a simple game which, at first, I thought was too simple. You have no control over what card to play (just take it off the top of your deck) so I felt like I was just watching us play rather than playing. Then I realised that as your deck built up then your choices about what to take and what to discard between rounds is kind of pivotal.

So anyway, we had three playing areas that we rotated around according to our “fixture list” except for Joe who found that all of his games were played at the same end of the same pitch. Sam started well, but then discovered he’d picked up two “C” cards which had got mixed into the “A” deck and so his deck was pretty over powered. After this had been rectified, he fell into a run of defeats. Ian took a long time between changing seats, prompting Sam to suggest he was engaging in psychological games. I actually thought there should be more ritual between games. Maybe slamming our decks of cards on the table before we start in a Sumo-esque display of strength.

Anyway, after the tournament ended the scores were Gareth 32, Joe 31, Martin 18, Ian 17, Andrew 16, Sam 3 so Joe and Gareth went head-to-head in a final. It was pretty thematic at first: the Heroin card beat the Villain and then a werewolf beat another werewolf. Then a horse and dog teamed up to beat a werwolf and I stopped making notes after that. 

Gareth won! After Joe over-filled his bench

Then we split into two groups of three. Martin got his wish to play San Fran, with Gareth and I in tow, while Sam, Ian and Joe played Pan Am - a very nice looking game with a map of the world that has the north pole in the middle.

And Sam hated his beer so Joe took it and replaced it with a gin and tonic. Clearly getting into the whole air hostess thing.

Gareth and I got a rules refresher for San Francisco and off we sped. I apparently, kept taking the pile that Gareth needed (not a bad strategy) but I think we all had moments like that. I resented them leaving two grey foundations in play until I was in a position to take one but Gareth and then Martin took them.

Still, it was nice to play again and Martin got his photos done.

Martin 13

Gareth 8

Andrew 8

Pan Am was still in full flow so we played Spots. I played safe, taking turns to bank cards when I completed them. Gareth had terrible luck, constantly rolling fours when they were no use to him and then when he needed one - just one - he burnt through his entire stack of treats but never rolled a four. Cruel.

Martin 6

Andrew 4

Gareth 0

I had to head off now, and as I left the Pan Am game was just entering its final stage and Sam and Joe were feeling threatened by Ian's enormous stack. But it ended…

Sam 16

Ian 14

Joe 12

Martin and Gareth played Strike while Pan Am ended and then the five of them ended with So Clover.

26/30

But perhaps most important, as relayed by Sam the following day, was that Joe read out a dream he’d written in an exercise book when he was 15 years old. Just as he was reading about Clint Eastwood doing the hovering and someone was taking their knickers off when his children and all their friends came into the kitchen.

Thanks everyone. Enormous fun as always.

Two agents are better than three

My first games night in weeks and I arrived after 8pm, having driven around the block three times in search of a parking space. I was in time to watch Ian, Joe, Sam and Martin finish a game of Hit, with Joe doing so badly I (cruelly) asked him if he’d joined in halfway through.

Ian 112

Sam 91

Martin 84

Joe 31

Then Sam and Martin told me the night had begun with a game of Schnipp & Weg. Apparently it was very closed and they sounded like a couple of New York Jews reminiscing over an old argument. “I schnipped, he wegged.”

Then we had a protracted discussion about what to play but the five-player options weren’t really exciting us. Charioteer? Hansa Teutonica? Decrypto? Not even Railways of the World got much support. In the end, we spilt into two groups. Ian, Joe and I played Dune Imperium, a rematch from the Novocon days. Sam and Martin decided on a smorgasbord of two-player options, beginning with San Francisco.

Sam tried to play mean by taking things just so Martin couldn’t but by the end of the game, his over-emphasis on foundations had left him adrift on a number of point scoring possibilities and Martin took a handsome win.

Martin 16

Sam 4

Then they played Caesar! Battle raged across the Mediterranean until Sam cried “End it!” and so Martin did, and he won. I believe Sam ended with only three tokens and an unhealthy fixation on Rome.

As for Dune, I was first to score a point and Joe got his extra agent early on, but it was Ian who became the man to beat after a move mid-game when he chained together several intrigue cards and leapt into a commanding three-point lead. Conflict was often fierce, with Joe picking up third place reward with a single unit, saying he was “just dropping a dog” into the battle. This lead to a lengthy rumination between us about what kind of dog and what the actual consequences of such a strategy might be. “He looked at me as he fell!” I wailed in character as the soldier given the task of pushing a sausage dog out of a plane.

Sam and Martin had moved on to Spots, a dice-based luck-pushing game where you have to match your dice rolls to the spots on some dalmatians on cards dealt out to you, using a range of six possible options when rolling (thematically called Fetch, Beg, Stay etc). They played three rounds and Martin won 2-1, ending by saying “Anything low would be fine,” and then rolling a six, but then rolling the winning die the very next moment.

Back on the distant planet of Dune, despite his numerical agent advantage, Joe was lagging in third as I’d won a two-point battle and was right on Ian’s tail. Ian triggered the game end. I managed to drag him back one point but couldn’t overtake him. It was down to Joe, who needed water to do what he wanted. But his last move drew him level with me and it really couldn’t have been much closer.

Ian 9

Andrew 8

Joe 8

And Ian won this using only two agents for the whole game. Impressive.

As we closed out Dune, Sam and Martin played a game of Set and Match which I admit was quite distracting as they flicked a yellow puck back and forth across a tennis court. They exclaimed admiration for cross-court drop shots and made remarks about using “Hawkeye” when they scrutinised the puck sitting fractionally on the white lines of the court.

Sam 2

Martin 1

Then it was 10.15 and I was thinking about doing a Malmesbury but So Clover was mentioned as a nice way to bring the group all back together.

My heart sank when I saw my words. I was especially frustrated by “First/Salad.” For a long time I considered “Eden,” since the garden of Eden is, I supposed, where the first salad was made but it seemed a stretch too far. Then “Starter” popped into my head which was a much better fit so I wrote it down and finally finished my clover.

Dreams of a perfect start didn’t last long as we failed on both Sam’s and Martin’s. Sam’s clue of Garagin was an easy match for “Astronaut” but what kind of astronaut was he? We should’ve done better with Martin too. He’d written “Shooting” as one of his clues and we couldn’t bring ourselves to believe he’d be so tasteless as to pair that with “School/Bang” but our good intentions were misplaced. “I can’t believe you thought I wouldn’t be tasteless,” Martin remarked afterwards, almost offended at our high opinion of him.

We got Joe’s and Ian’s perfectly, although Ian’s clue of “Jedward” caused some debate. We got “pair” easily enough but then Joe wanted to add “old” because they were out of date. But surely “old/pair” would suggest something more ancient than two Eurovision entrants. Then we thought it might be “recent/pair” with Martin vetoing this idea because Jedward really weren’t that current. In the end he was overruled and the guess turned out to be correct.  Finally, I was surprised that my clover of torture was solved in maybe under a minute. All that hard work was worth it.

26 out of 30

Then I had to leave, despite murmurings of a second attempt and shots of whiskey.

Later I discovered that they’d completed the game with a score of 24 out of 24!

Then I was surprised at how long the Whatsapp messages kept coming as the whiskey flowed and Strike! Was played three times. No four... hang on, f- no, six times. Martin won games 1-3 and then Ian acted as combo breaker and won game four. Sam nabbed the fifth and the sixth was Martin again, and it was his 50th play of the game! 

Thanks all. See you next Tuesday.

Malmesbury!

A return to Steve and Anja's in Easton occurred last night after a couple of weeks delay, caused by a) gaming fatigue and b) quite serious illness (possibly brought on by playing Feast for Odin).

A few regulars were missing, but by the time Katy and I (Joe) arrived we were seven plus little Louie: Steve, Anja, Martin, Adam H, Gareth, Katy and me. Conversation eventually turned to the business of the evening, with Louie keen to max out his promise of one game before bed into something an hour long. We quickly established that we had nothing for 8 players, so Anja, Martin, Gareth and I slunk off to the other side of the room and played a couple of hands of Hit. Fortune smiled on me in both games... not so much on Anja. We enjoyed the bittersweet delight of choosing to stick when the next card was revealed to be a bust, even though that inevitably meant you lost all those points to the next player.

While we made like grizzled Old West poker players, Steve, Katy, Adam H and Louie had settled on Barenpark, the lesser-spotted polyomino zoo-building game.

They seemed to have only just begun, so when Hit ended we four turned our attention to something a bit deeper. I'd brought my home-made deluxe Ra set, for which I've (finally) found the perfect draw bag. The bag that came with the deluxe tiles was too silky and gaudy, and the painted tube I replaced it with was too constricted and flaky. On a recent trip to Ikea I spotted a woven bag that seemed just right, and it is! Not too floppy, easy to delve into without looking; I can't now find it on the Ikea website, let's call it Göldiloks.

Anja had played long ago, and it was new to Gareth, so Martin taught while I assiduously stiurred the draw bag to mix the tiles. The only thing missing from my set is a player aid showing what scores what; in fact that's the hardest part of Ra to remember for new players, but Martin did a good job of teaching it, and Anja and Gareth an excellent job of keeping this in mind. With the civilisation tiles, Martin explained, it's theoretically possible to get all five for 15 points; "but that's never happened in any game I've played". 

The first epoch was notable for the absence of Ra tiles among those being drawn, which is always portentous. Anja and then Gareth bowed out fairly early, followed by me, leaving Martin to clean up on his last sun tile with five Ras still to come. And out they all came, leaving him to cash in his 12 for a meagre 4 tiles. Later he rued his lack of gumption, feeling he should have kept going. Personally I think he was wise - we can all instinctively tell when an epoch is on the cusp.

The second epoch was an absolute corker for Anja, who ended with the fabled five civilisations, and more points to boot. I was nursing the 1 tile, and showed the newbies what to do with it - call Ra whenever it's your turn, basically. Not that it worked out especially well for me, I think I scored 0 on the second epoch.

Barenpark had finished, and Katy and Adam dabbled in a bit of Strike (a tie, apparently) while Steve checked on Louie.

Barenpark

Katy 97

Steve 82

Adam 81

Louie 72

On his return, they sat around and seemed at a loss with what to do with their time, waiting for us to finish. "Just play a game!" urged Martin, and after another go at Strike, they eventually gave up waiting for us and got to work on Ticket to Ride Germany.

Strike

Adam 2

Katy 1

Steve 0

Meanwhile in ancient Egypt, I was sure the third epoch wouldn't last long - Ra tiles must have outnumbered everything else in the bag. The game was also notable for the large number of monuments that came out, and a decent three way fight over the Pharaohs, which I eventually won. As the third epoch closed out in a flurry of angry Ra's, it was clear we were fighting for second place to Anja. Gareth's third epoch was hurt by a lack of floods to hydrate his large stack of Niles, but he at least took 5 points from me for highest sun tile total.

Anja 62

Joe 47

Martin 36

Gareth 29

Ticket to Ride Germany was in full swing, and Gareth bowed out, saying something about Malmesbury. From now on I think anyone leaving games night before the end should just announce "Malmesbury" and disappear in a puff of smoke.

Keen for a Knizia triathlon, we broke out San Francisco. This was new to Anja, and we again settled into a routine of Martin explaining while I laid things out and handed him relevant bits like a bald little Debbie McGee to his Paul Daniels (Martin has not sanctioned this analogy).

I really enjoy this recent Reiner; the contracts provide just the right sort of tension in whether to add or grab, and we all admired the decision to keep the overall scores as low as possible by having half points. Anja focused on cable cars, and was lightly dismayed at the end to discover she got all of 2.5 points for them. Martin and I fought over Master Builder status, and in the end his win may have teetered on him dumping two cards that would have been good for me, and despite my ire at discovering that was even a tactic, me failing to return the favour on a subsequent turn, allowing him to grab a 3rd 'scraper and the master Builder point.

Martin 13

Joe 11.5

Anja 8

Whilst we were in the final throws of San Fran, Ticket to Ride Germany had ended. I know nothing of what happened, sorry. It seemed to involve a lot of meeples, which I've never seen in a TTR game. The scores are pleasingly uniform, unless I wrote them down wrong.

Adam 182

Steve 172

Katy 162

While we packed away, Adam H Malmesburied and Steve and Katy chatted.

We knew it was time to go when a weary Steve was overheard saying to Katy "All it takes is a child to have a poo at the wrong time and your whole day is screwed." We bade our lovely hosts goodnight and headed out into the chill. "The moon!", cried Katy, and told Martin and I that this week's full moon is called Alan. Alan R Moon, perhaps? Who knows. 

Thanks for a lovely evening, and sorry to miss so many regular faces. And especially big love to Sam, whose mum passed away earlier this week x

Louder than Hugo

It’s been over six years since a board game was so raucous that it couldn’t be played in an ordinary house, but this week we found another game to file alongside Midnight Party/Hugo under the ban hammer.

 

I arrived at 8 and watched as Joe, Sam, Martin and Gareth played Letter Tricks. Each player plays a card to make a four letter word. There was a lot of consulting of the Scrabble dictionary in the hope that an improbable word would be okay, and it usually was. “Doup is a word!” Sam exclaimed. And so was Brin and Grav. “If you can have anti-grav, you can have grav,” remarked Gareth. Except, oddly, for Shiz which we all expected would be confirmed as genuine but the dictionary didn’t list it. We decided to accept it, anyway. Fo' shiz.

Then, after discovering that a brin is a spoke of a fan, we all played Hit. We pushed our luck and watched as a stack of fives was swapped from player to player. Sam had appalling luck, constantly busting and banking only one point and then at the very end he decided to just draw all the cards until the end of the deck. His last card was a five and they changed hands for one more time.

Martin 95

Joe 88

Sam 65

Andrew 59

Gareth 58

 

Then Katy arrived and we brought out a new game: Ready Set Bet. A horse betting game with a huge board for placing bets and a tiny board for the race itself. 

Katy was volunteered (or volunteered herself, I don’t recall) to be the race master, which meant she had to roll dice, move horses and commentate all at once. Her bets were placed at the start of the race while the rest of us could bet on horses during the race. Despite her lack of information, she did extremely well.

Martin managed to win all of his bets in round one and he did well on round two too. I put two bets on horse nine to win and it did. That was my only flash of luck as, for the rest pf the time, I spread my bets in such a way that they couldn’t possibly all win.

It was an event. We cried and yelled for our bets to come in like gambling addicts waiting to see if lady luck will finally look our way. It was almost too exciting. If any of us end up in debt to the bookies, we’ll know where it started. As the fourth and final race ended, Joe’s wife Charlotte came down the stairs, looking slightly bemused. We did apologize and I assume Joe had to apologize to his neighbours later. It was clear that this game was too loud for any domestic venue. Expect to see it at Novocon, though.

 

Martin 204

Katy 154

Gareth 93

Joe 81

Sam 71

Andrew 67

Then we split into two groups. Gareth was introduced to Thurn and Taxis by Joe and Sam and I was introduced to San Francisco by Katy and Martin.

After all the excitement of Ready Steady Bet, it was a blessed relief to play something more relaxing. I can’t honestly say I had any real plan. Getting in Katy’s way seemed to be mostof it though. Martin strode to an almost complete whitewash as he picked up half a dozen bonuses for completing things.

Martin 16

Andrew 7.5

Katy 7

In Thurn and Taxis (I admit I was too tired to pay much attention to it) ended

Joe 31

Gareth 16

Sam 13

By now it was after half past ten and so I dashed off while the remaining quintet finished on So Clover. Thanks all, see you again soon.