A very happy non birthday

This week our co-host, Adam, was the almost-birthday boy and he'd asked Sam to bring A Feast For Odin as his yearly GNN treat. Sam did so, but Adam found little in the way of fellow gamers who wanted to join him.

Initially, there were eight of us. Adam, Hannah, Katy, Matt, Joe, Sam, Martin and me. With Ian expected later, we hesitated over anything too involved. Martin and Sam went for a short two-player game 13 Minutes, while the rest of us had a rip-roaring six-player game of Santo Domingo.

After a brief explanation of the very few rules to Adam and Hannah, we were off. My brilliant opening move was slightly ruined by it also being Katy's brilliant opening move: trading goods for points. Between us we’d lowered the exchange rate.

It's a cunning game, taking the theme of getting stuff to get other stuff and giving it an element of bluffing. I think we all said afterwards how much we liked it, with Joe perhaps enjoying it most.

Joe 30
Matt 29
Katy 23
Andrew 21
Adam 20
Hannah 14

As for 13Minutes, it was a convincing win for Martin, although Sam said the real victory was avoiding nuclear war.

Martin 10
Sam 4

So, as an eight, we decided to honour the newly crowned Spiel des Jahres, Kingdomino, with two consecutive games. We didn't play the same tiles - unfortunately that idea didn't occur to us until halfway through, but there was a tacit agreement that the two games were in competition.

It was Adam's first game and, despite my terrible position in clear last, I offered the birthday boy no sympathy when my last move was to take a piece I couldn't place just to stop Adam.

Joe 64
Martin 54
Adam 51
Andrew 31

On the big table it ended:

Sam 55
Matt 47
Katy 46
Hannah 36

Which makes Joe the best and me the worst. We ended with a spirited discussion about the pronunciation of Kingdomino. Was it "King Domino" or was it with the emphasis on the penultimate syllable, as if the English word Kingdom had taken the Italian suffix of -ino meaning "small" which would certainly be apt. Perhaps we will never know.

Ian was sure to arrive soon, so five of us chose Ticket To Ride: Pennsylvania map for our evening's entertainment while the other three planned to get through a quick game of Honshu before Ian got here.

As it was, though, Ian arrived while the rules to Honshu were being explained, so he had no choice but to join them, since TtR wouldn't expand to six.

Ticket To Ride is famous as a gateway game, but any sign of convivial competition were put to one side in a tense game. The map we chose had the added tactic of picking up shares in train companies, with end-of-game bonuses for those with most shares in certain companies.

Katy began in high spirits. Perhaps too high as both I and Hannah mocked her gleeful delight. This prompted a spell of silence from the good doctor. She later insisted she wasn't sulking, but wanted to see if she could play a game without speaking for five minutes. And she could. In fact, she lasted for seven minutes, beating her previous record of five minutes that she'd set two minutes previously.

Adam's usual tactic of collecting cards until you have half the deck in your hand was used to good effect, as he avoided time consuming short links and built expansively, picking up low scoring but unpopular shares as he did.

Katy went big on route cards. Alas, too big, since she picked up two more just before I noticed out loud that Adam could end the game in a few moves.

At this point everyone panicked. Well, I did. There was no way to complete both my high scoring routes in time, despite Hannah's noble tactic of building the link that would end the game if Adam had built it. Katy ended with -30 points. Meanwhile, Joe and I, the two early trailblazers, ended back near the caboose.

Adam 166
Hannah 122
Katy 118
Andrew 99
Joe 94

As for Honshu, it expanded across Adam & Hannah’s blue coffee table, until Ian’s and Sam’s cities were seperated by a wafer-thin corridor.

Martin 63
Sam 60
Ian 58
Matt 52

Then they played Polterfass, the game of passive aggressive beer distribution. I know little about this game, except for Martin getting a worst-case scenario when he settled on supplying 26 barrels of beer and his three opponents ordered 9, 9 and 8, leaving him with nothing.

Matt 75
Martin 61
Ian 45
Sam 36

By now we were together again. We chose 6nimmt as the finale of this week’s event. Hannah went to bed, so the remaining eight stood around the table, cursing every step of our zombie-laden way.

Sam went for a high early card in rounds two and three and got caught out both times. Ian commented that he thought it was seibennimmt when he ended up taking a row. And one round had a gap of about seventy between the two available places, offering a range of equally bad strategies. I went Dirk for one of my choices in round one, and I regretted it. Stupid Dirk.

Katy 26
Martin 45
Ian 52
Adam 55
Sam 57
Matt 63
Joe 72
Andrew 79

And so the evening ended, with the promise of thunderstorms in the air.

Thanks all. It was a good one! And happy birthday, Adam.

The winner who wasn’t there

They came in droves, hunched over under the heavy Summer showers that spread across this Tuesday evening.

We began as a six (host Joe, and guests Katy, Ian, Martin, Andy and me) with a seventh (Adam) expected later. We began with Polterfass, a recent arrival at GNN, which plays six. The game is about supplying beer to your opponents, who need to guess the right amount to maximise their returns, but too much and they walk away with nothing, perhaps even minus points.

Polterfass: kind of lost against the backdrop

of Joe's floral table cloth

The general consensus was that it was not at its best with so many. Perhaps the dim view of the game was prompted by a spate of early rolls that meant the barkeep went bust and everyone simply got what they bid. A bit unexciting. We played a truncated game, with Joe hitting the 50-point target when he was barman and the rest of us got too greedy. Meanwhile, Ian struggled, staying below zero until round six.

Joe 55
Martin 45
Andy 34
Katy 33
Andrew 22
Ian 21

After this, we chose Santo Domingo, another new game with an element of bluff and counter bluff. Each round, everyone plays a card which gains certain benefits, but other players may play cards that gain bigger benefits if you played the one card you wanted to play for those benefits that I mentioned earlier. It's a delicate balance.

During play, each player puts their discarded cards in a pile, face down in front of them. All except Ian who, Raj-like, kept the upper card face up. A style of play that Martin described as "balls out". A typical Martin-esque piquant observation about gaming that involved the male genitalia.

Joe 31
Ian 25
Andy 22
Katy 22
Martin 19
Andrew 18

Next, with the imminent arrival of Adam, we chose For Sale as a nice quick six-player that wasn't Fuji Flush or Pairs. Katy finally followed the strategy that she'd often mentioned in the past but always quickly abandoned. This time she stuck to it. It turned out to be: spend no money in round one. This, at least, gave her fourteen points going into round two.

But it quickly came undone when a zero dollar card was dealt out and everyone went high, leaving Katy's 16 card picking up a very expensive nothing. She didn't help her cause by announcing "but that was my highest card," giving everyone an insight into how to beat Katy. She never recovered and ended the game disavowing her strategy.

Ian 54
Andrew 51
Joe 49
Andy 39
Martin 38
Katy 30

Adam arrived during For Sale, so we split into groups of four and three. Adam suggested Flamme Rogue and Andy and Martin joined him. Katy was keen on Lords of Vegas and the rest of us agreed.

Lords of Vegas is a bit of an attention seeker, so I know little about Flamme Rogue, except for Martin being surprised by the size of the hill before the finish. Whenever I looked over, they all seemed to be bunched together, with Andy commenting that one moment when they were all in single file was exactly what you'd see in a real race.

Adam must've been tired after his late meeting at work, because he manged to bump into both a chest of drawers and the card table on his way to get himself a glass of water. As for the race, it ended:

1. Martin
2. Adam
3. Andy

They then discussed what to play next. Ra was suggested, but it turns out that Adam doesn't like Ra. An astonishing confession, especially since I think he owns a copy. Instead they began a game of Vikings, which was Adam's first. I admit to total ignorance of the rules, plus LoV was reaching its climax, so I know nothing about it other than the result.

Martin 75
Andy 51
Adam 45

Meanwhile, Lords of Vegas offered up the usual thrills and spills. Ian sped off into an early lead with a casino big enough to make it futile for anyone else to build in that city block.

But then I started to catch up. My casinos (casinii?) grew and I had a stroke of luck when I took control of a lot that Ian had sprawled into, which put me in charge of a five-tile casino on the strip, to go with the seven-tile casino I already owned. Ian was stymied by a lack of options. He spent most of the game with no vacant plots on the board, leading me or Katy to remark "Ian's lost the plot" whenever it was mentioned. It never stopped being funny.

Joe and Katy started badly. Joe looked to be in terrible shape in the late stages of the game until he re-rolled two adjacent four-tile casinos, and then remodelled them into a giant eight tile casino. Unfortunately it didn't pay out before Katy's turn when she reorganized and won it "by miles." The game ended soon after that, with Joe's dreams of a last minute surge up the score track in tatters.

A cheap re-roll for Joe (yellow) or Katy (blue)

Andrew 44
Katy 36 plus cash
Ian 36
Joe 10

I don't want to boast, but my win was pretty comprehensive. I ended with more than $100 million in reserve, only one die left, only two tokens left and I did nothing in my last turn, because my position couldn't be improved. After the game ended, Joe commended me for playing like Howard Hughes, since I’d often given people money if they'd reorganize a casino that I had no dice in, just to enjoy the show.

So now we were all back together and decided to end on Fuji Flush, with its usual gratuitous display of dick points, just because people can.

The first game ended in some style with Joe winning without even being in the room. He had to go and answer the phone and while he was away, he pushed through. Since he only had one card left, we played it for him. To wails of anguish (that I hope Joe heard and enjoyed), we saw it was a fourteen, to match the fourteen already played by Martin. Not wanting to be left out, Andy also played a fourteen. After that, it was a formality and by the time Joe came back we had already shuffled and dealt out another hand.

Joe 0 cards left
Andy 2
Katy 2
Martin 3
Ian 5
Andrew 5

The second game was less remarkable except for Ian knocking his tiny shot glass off the table. Luckily it landed on the dog sleeping next to him and rolled onto the floor, undamaged. The dog went and slept somewhere else.

Adam 0 cards left
Ian 0
Andy 1
Martin 1
Joe 1
Andrew 2
Katy 3

As we got ready to leave, Martin remarked how the best way to appreciate Fuji Flush was to "feel your inner dick." And with that image seared across our minds, we left another week of joy in our wake. Thanks everyone. It was an experience.

Quieter than Dirk

That was Sam's description of Ian during a game of Insider this evening. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start at the start.

A new season of games dawned this Tuesday evening. A season free from the shackles of the Division and it's constant judging. A season that really puts the emphasis on fun.

There were eight of us: Sam, the host, Joe, Martin, Katy, Ian, Chris, Laura and me. We began as an eightsome, playing Fuji Flush. It began in convivial style with all of us pushing through our twos. All except Joe, who found it difficult to get rid of any cards in the early part of the game. He muttered "I am so going to win this," as he looked through the five cards in his hand.

He didn't win, but he did manage a bit of a comeback, thanks to giving me the win by joining with my and Ian's (I think) sevens. I pushed through and, post-game, Ian revealed he had the twenty, but never saw the right opportunity to play it.

Andrew 0
Chris 1
Katy 1
Sam 1
Joe 2
Laura 2
Ian 2
Martin 3

At this point the group split in two. Katy, Martin, Joe and Sam indulged in new pleasures and unknown games.

Martin was good enough to email me his report from that half of the table, otherwise all of their efforts would’ve been lost forever.

Joe and I were both brandishing new games and a group of four quickly formed with Katy and Sam hopping in. First up was Joe's Kingdomino, hot favourite for this year's Spiel des Jahres. I'd played once before with 2 players and quite enjoyed it.

It's a very simple tile-drafting affair in which each player tries to complete their own 5x5 grid from 2x1 'domino' tiles marked with different terrains. To score well, you need big areas of the same terrain-type that also contain crown symbols, since an area scores its size multiplied by its crowns. Each player gets one tile per round, and if you choose a 'better' one (more crowns), you'll be pushed down the turn order for the next round. It all flows very smoothly.

Joe and Katy couldn't quite complete their grids (a domino always has to match at least one adjacent terrain on your board) which left Sam and I with an advantage in the bonus scoring. Sam's healthy 10-tile/4-crown forest was enough for him to edge it.

Sam 69
Martin 64
Joe 42
Katy 38

I lobbied for Polterfass next, a game of bluffing and reading your opponents in which you take turns to be innkeeper and try to drink as much beer as possible without running the bar dry! It took us a little while to get used to the possible scoring scenarios but once we had that down it became a very enjoyable exercise in double-think. The beer-barrel 'dice' and beer mats are really cute too.

It seems that Katy's psychological powers are the strongest as she ran into an early lead and never looked back, while the rest of us repeatedly took one step forward and two steps back.

Katy 75
Joe 64
Martin 48
Sam 30

That theme continued into the next game, Santo Domingo. Here, each player has a set of the same 8 role cards, simultaneously selecting one each round. Some take money or goods from the centre, some let you trade goods for money at varying exchange rates and some let you profit from predicting what the other players will do. There's also a card which lets you recycle your used cards back into your hand again for fresh use, a la Concordia.

We had a false start when we realised we'd missed a vital rule, to Katy's chagrin as she had a big lead. However she picked up just where she left off and read our minds to victory in short order.

Katy 32
Sam 21
Joe 19
Martin 18


More from Martin later. Meanwhile, we at the conservative (small 'c', I hasten to add) end of the table chose a game because we all knew it - Quantum. Chris and I had a brief discussion as to whether the game was strategic or tactical, but if I'm being honest, I'm still unsure of the difference between the two.

We chose the Nexus map since it was the biggest we could get on half a kitchen table, but found we didn't have enough 9 tiles. We decided to use 10s instead and carry on. As an aside, the next day, Chris checked on Board Game Geek about the Nexus map and it turns out that it was a misprint and we did the right thing. Nice to have a house rule officially acknowledged.

As for the game, I quickly got a card Curious, which allows an extra free movement. As such, most of my game was spent hiding in corners, hoping to avoid fights. Laura fell behind at first but then fought her way back into contention. Conversely, Chris started well and then stopped making progress at some point.

Me, hiding, top left

It was me versus Ian near the end, with one cube each. It was at this moment that I made a brilliant move. Astute and well observed and, most importantly, I did it while Ian was on the toilet.

This meant when he came back to take his go, he hadn't noticed I'd taken the Aggression card (+2 on dominance) and his declaration of "I can win the game" quickly unraveled. He couldn't, and Chris couldn't reach me, so I was able to place a cube for a rare win for me at Quantum.

Andrew 0
Ian 1
Chris 2
Laura 2

After this epic (the other guys had completed three games and were into a third) we were in need of lighter fare, so we chose Raj for our light relief.

We played a three-round game and I placed first in every one, leading to a comfortable win. Ian was second after round two, but had a nightmare the final stages.

Andrew 64
Chris 33
Laura 27
Ian 20

Still aiming to synchronize game endings between the two groups, we chose NMBR9.

We played twice. It was Laura's first game and her inexperience showed. But she should be commended as being the player least vocal about their terrible choice of tile placement.

Andrew 84
Ian 82
Chris 73
Laura 46

We played again, since one game of NMBR9 is never enough. Once again, we wailed at our grim fate.

Laura flew into a convincing win, while Chris only managed to get one number on the third (ie, x2) level.

Laura 83
Andrew 69
Ian 61
Chris 47

The other four had ended their game of Barenpark. Over to you Martin...

The new acquisitions all having had their outing, we went back to one of Sam's new ones that all of us but Katy had played last week: Barenpark. This time we added the advanced 'achievement tiles' - a selection of 3 goals from a set of 10 that provide one extra factor to consider in this multidimensional race.

I focused on these from the start and ended up completing them 1st, 2nd and 2nd, while Sam deliberately ignored them, focusing on other aspects for his score. Despite that, we ended up with closely-matched scores, while Katy had been hampered by only realising half-way through the game that you can rotate and flip your tiles to make them fit better.

Towards the end of the game, I bemoaned my park's lack of toilet facilities, but we figured the tourists could just 'do as the bears do...'.

Martin 102
Sam 93
Joe 87
Katy 74 

Now we were all back together for a quick round of Insider, accompanied by Katy’s sticky toffee flavour popcorn. The sugar rush was big enough to be heard as we all tutted and shook our heads at how overly sweet it was, while taking extra handfuls of the stuff and pushing it into our mouths.

As for Insider, Joe was the Master and the word was “tennis court” which I correctly guessed. But only because Sam had guessed “squash court” so I suspected Sam as the insider. Also, Martin weirdly blurted out “Did you just say ‘swimming pool’?” which raised some eyebrows. Katy was first to mention sports, I think, so she was looking shifty, too. And I'd mentioned a football stadium, too.

We tried to piece where the first seeds of “tennis court” had been planted, but to no avail. I think Chris was voted to be the Insider, but it wasn't him. It was Laura! She had asked the question “Is it a regular shape?” which set us on our long and tortuous journey to success. With one innocuous question, she caused mistrust and doubt amongst friends. She should be a politician.

Laura wins!
No one else does.

Finally, we played Pairs. My only points came when I was away from the table on a toilet dash and everyone else played for me for one round. I should’ve stayed away longer. I came joint first that round.

It was Laura who came first, capping her evening with a hat-trick of wins, with Sam and Joe in close contention. Everyone else: must try harder.

Laura 23
Sam 21
Joe 21
Katy 13
Martin 12
Ian 11
Chris 8
Andrew 8

And so we left happily, trooping back to our homes, content in the glow of an evening well spent. See you next week!