With various stalwarts of the Tuesday night gang absent and/or unable to host, Martin, Jo and I (Joe) rolled up to Anja and Steve's at just shy of 8pm, each of us armed with several high player count games. Louie was on a trampoline somewhere else, but joined us just as Puerto Banana hit the table, and seemed to grasp the inherent idiocy quite quickly. "Can I bid ten million bananas?", he asked. "Of course!", we replied.
I don't think anyone bid ten million bananas, but I might have missed it - after a few rounds, Martin accidentally handed what he described as a pyrrhic victory to Jo, winning the round with 1234 bananas but owing Jo so many bananas they ultimately won the game. As pointed out by Steve, it's game that probably teaches us more than we'd really like to know about how financial systems work. Bananas!
A photo of Puerto Banana that really captures the fun...
Louie had about half an hour before bedtime, so he, Steve and I played Ticket to Ride Berlin, whilst Martin and Anja introduced Jo to Mille Fiore. Louie schooled me and Steve at TTR, springing the end game on us before we could complete our extra routes. Steve and I played Sea, Salt and Paper while Mille Fiore wrapped up; my win was convincing enough to make Steve peer at me from over his glasses in a withering way.
Joe 40
Steve 18
Mille Fiore finished with a squeaker, Martin edging past Anja by two points, with Jo only 30 points behind her:
Martin 205
Anja 203
Jo 173
Together at last, we five embarked on a pun-laden trick-taker that's not a trick-taker except it sort of is a trick-taker in the form of Jo's UKGE purchase, Power Vacuum. Jo had explained it to me in the car on the way over; "It's based on the death of Stalin, but with household appliances". Of course! The game was notable for the fine art and lavish production values, players demonstrating their points by building multi-part statues to themselves (in the event of a tie, the best statue wins). The reason it's not really a trick taker is that it's far more beneficial really to lose the trick, and get to manipulate the power each player is going to win at the end of the round (along with your bid on who's going to win and lose) than to win it. That part was the crux, and lead to some agonising moments. Anja, Jo and Steve I think all managed to score their bids at some point - I only managed a half bid a couple of times. It was a lot of fun, though quite befuddling at first, and according to Martin, perhaps having one or two too many good ideas crammed into it.
Despite the game's exceptional table-presence I didn't take any photos because I'm a twit, so here's a couple of really quite odd Berger & Wyse cartoons we managed to get the Guardian to publish a few years ago...
We only managed four hands of Power Vacuum before the clock struck 11 and we felt we ought to leave our hosts in peace, so we called it: Anja took the win - was on the cusp of the winning prerequisite of 40 points:
Anja 37
Jo 31
Martin 25
Steve 23
Joe 20
It was a fun night - I really should have taken some photos.
Tuesday's GNN was a lightly-attended affair, possibly with the forthcoming Novocon affecting people's plans. Adam T arrived at my house early enough to watch me making a mess in the kitchen as I burnt some chicken for the family. Then, after tea was consumed, others arrived: Laura then Martin joined Adam in the front room until the decks were clear enough to game on them. We began with Adam's new library addition, Furnace.
Martin prepares scathing BGG commentary
We are industrialists bidding for factories (cards) which, once that's resolved, we run the factories which either give us resources of coal/metal/oil and/or convert said resources (- oil, mostly) into cash, which is points. The bidding system is canny: everyone has bidding chips numbered 1-4 and you can't bid on any factory with the same colour chip (ie, you've already bid on it) or the same number.
When the bidding is done, the highest bidder gets the factory but any outbid chips pick up compensation in the form of the precious resources: meaning you often want to be outbid in one factory in order to run another.
Then everyone runs their factories and turns base metal into gold. In round one (of four) this is pretty straightforward, but as the cards multiply the cognitive load escalates, leading to brow-furrowing, dark muttering and do-overs. Here's Adam's factories on the final round:
Holy industrialisation
It's not a terribly long game at all, but whether the factory fun lived up to the bidding brevity; the jury was out on that (except for Martin, who was like a reverse Henry Fonda trying to get the accused in for a life stretch). Despite his chagrin, however, he still did well enough. With the fewest factories, I was the only one completely certain of my score. A shame it wasn't a good one.
Martin 78 'give or take five'
Adam 68 'couldn't do the last step'
Sam 54
Laura 43 'but I'm not really sure'
After a brief post-mortem we moved on to a palette-cleanser in Gang of Dice; new to Laura but not exactly tricky to pick up.
A happier Martin
The game was chiefly noted for Martin's speedy odds calculations and exhortations that everyone else risk everything to beat him. I won only two rounds in the entire game, I think Laura three or four. Adam may not have won as many as Martin, but he chose his moments well, ending with a vast stack of chips.
A happier Adam
Adam 64
Martin 45
Laura 33
Sam 20
Then Laura left to recharge her batteries for the weekend. We didn't need much debate to settle on Babylonia as our next conquest, with Adam and I agreeing before a tile had been placed that we needed to 'stop Martin'. It was a game of some quick ziggurat action as both my opponents claimed bonus tiles early on - Martin would have had a third had I not stopped him with my pesky farmers.
caption here, ideally
We created an odd division of thirds across the board with Adam and Martin largely playing in front of themselves and me occupying the middle space. Despite my ziggurat chicanery, Martin established an early lead and built on it as Adam ruminated into his beard and I into the room, only slightly louder.
Although his point scoring dwindled somewhat and we hauled him back, our resident Babylonian had done enough to claim yet another win in this devious game.
Martin 145
Sam 133
Adam 106
We moved onto Sea Salt & Paper.
revenge
I eschewed my habit of calling stop in favour of some last-chances, helped by a couple of strong scores early in the rounds. We all did some dastardly sharking and after 20 minutes Martin was poised on 27 points with me on 21 and Adam 16. I pulled off a dramatic - and slightly spawny - win with a 15 point haul to propel me over the line.
scores
And that was that! See some of you at the weekend - NOVOCON IS HERE!!!
I arrived at little early at Joe's and after catching up with he and Charlotte and getting mauled by Sybil, we had a couple of games of Focus. This is a co-op challenge of guessing each other's secret image from a grid of said images - the catch being that you clue your own using others: here, my image was the telescope and Joe's, confusingly, was the glasses.
If you are unfortunate enough to use your partner's word as a clue, you both lose. Otherwise when you're both satisfied you know what the word is, there's a countdown and you both put your fingers on it, Codenames-style. Joe guessed my image correctly twice, but I was wrong each time, lacking the focus required. However Martin and the Final Gareth turned up at this point and following them through the door were Laura and Katy and finally Adam H. Knowing this was Gareth's last GNN before leaving Bristol for Seattle and possibly beyond, he was presented with his present!
We debated what to play before settling on That's Not a Hat, even though Adam hated it. Then Katy remembered she hated it too and Laura confessed she wasn't a fan either. But it was too late for all that!
There was much confusion, chagrin and bamboozlement as various people were confident of what cards were until it was their turn. At one point there were about three Schrödinger's ducks and two Feynham newspapers in various states of reality, and it felt like everyone was bullshitting to the point that if anyone was bold enough to challenge, they'd be inflicting pain on the passer. But this theory proved wrong when Joe challenged Gareth on a duck, and by some insane coincidence, it was a duck!
Joe lost, with three busts at this point, with most people on one or two. I had none at all, but I don't think there's a winner in quantum gaming. We split into two groups now with Joe bringing another French purchase out, called Pass Pass. They were appalled that I took a picture before they started.
At the other end of the table, the fun of Strike was held up by the fun of trying to get all the components for Gareth's present back into the box. Here we have a particle physicist and moonbase engineer on the case:
With that done, we blasted through a couple of plays of Strike, won by Gareth and Martin.
Then we played Harvest. I forgot to take photos of this, which was a shame because I won. Maybe neglecting blog duties helped me focus. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, Pass Pass from what I could glean seemed an alluring mix of engagement and bemusement.
We played Sea Salt & Paper. I got off to a good start, chiselling an early lead, but we abandoned the game with Gareth apparently in the lead when Pass Pass finished. Then Gareth realised he'd inadvertently cheated so his win came with a big asterisk.
Katy won Pass Pass, how I have no idea. Joe implied it needed an asterisk too as it was a learning game, but Katy's face disagreed. Having been wrapped up in numerous Martin-sized games with Martin and Gareth, I missed anything about Pass Pass other than there is some trick-taking. Now there were various games proposed, with nobody really biting at Hansa Teutonica despite mine and Gareth's hopeful cherubic expressions. I suggested Pioneer Rails to Martin and his face literally started twitching. But Joe was interested. After some more shenanigans and box-waving, Katy agreed to try Maldivia again with Martin, Laura, and Gareth.
And Joe, Adam and I went pioneer-railing across the nascent US.
Not so much a roll-and-write as a flip-deal-choose-and-write, in each round of Pioneer Rails you are doing two things: building railroads across the map, and constructing a poker hand.
Poker hands are pretty straightforward; the map less so. Only the rank of the card you choose matters for poker, and only the suit is relevant on the map, where hearts/diamonds/spades/clubs are the four railways you're building. Beyond that, the choices tempt you in lots of different ways: gold and banks combine, so do cities and railyards, you can compartmentalise herds of cattle for points or circle around forts for escalating hauls. Along with the inevitable first-to-do-it bonuses, there's a fair amount to chew over, and we were a bit more thinky than the boisterous Maldvia.
Katy decided she liked the game this time, and winning may have helped. Martin, chief cajoler in it getting played at all, was rewarded with last place. It was close though:
Katy 9
Gareth 8
Laura 7
Martin 6
While we wrapped up they played Strike again: Katy winning twice and Martin once. Over in Texas or wherever it was close between Joe and I as we wrapped up our fourth and final round, with me inching ahead of him. But it was only close between us because Adam was miles ahead:
Adam 137
Sam 94
Joe 86
"That's my kind of game" he beamed, as Joe looked nonplussed. It is at the heavier end of an x-and-write game, but I rather like it regardless. There's room for some dickery in the poker hands, an option I neglected when I could have taken some points off Adam...
Laura said goodbye and set off for home, leaving us as a six. We plumped for Trios, playing in partnerships. In this version there are no shared cards, but when any team claims a trio, other teammates can (must, in fact) swap cards. This is helpful for the team in question as they share increasingly more information about what they hold. But it's a nightmare for other teams as you can't be sure that y person's lowest card then is still their lowest card now.
Martin and Adam claimed the first win, with what looked like an advantage to my eyes as they both held a seven at the start. Swapping sevens, they knew they just needed to locate the third and once the other cards were out of the way, claim the win. Having said that, saying it's easier than doing it. Katy demanded a trio of Trio, however, and she and I won the second and third game with Gareth and Joe holding the wooden spoon. They did master the simultaneous sliding of cards down the table though.
Then we played So Clover! Katy said she was going to be really sexist with her clues and not to put them on the blog, so I won't. We did pretty well - especially considering the amount of agonising going on pre-reveals. Gareth managed to navigate the combo of Silent Beef with the clue of veal - Katy was disgusted by everything - and Martin overcame his pessimism with some decent clues.
My clover was a bit problematic as my clues seemed to go much better with the wrong words, but kudos to everyone for getting them on a second go. Our stumbling block was Adam's clover, which had Martin repeating the words 'Jelly belly' for about ten minutes as he couldn't believe we weren't all familiar with the insult. By the time we actually made any guesses, Adam was completely distracted by something on his phone. But we did it, and it was a rock-solid score of 32/36 all told.
A momentous evening ended with lots of hugs and best wishes for our beardy friend on his new adventure. We'll miss you Gareth!
For the first time in years, I was first to arrive at Joe’s. I sat in the kitchen, anticipating playing one of those short little games that I usually interrupt on my arrival. Martin, Ian and Laura came in almost simultaneously but instead of playing, we chatted. Joe anguished over his new speaker not connecting properly, and some of his distress centered around the fact that he shouldn’t be this distressed about it.
Adam H and Katy arrived and now we were all present we began.
Adam, Joe and Ian played Knizia's temple building game, Tajuto while Laura, Katy, Martin and I chose Noli. Despite worries that it might be too loud with Katy playing, we promised to keep the noise down. I assured Laura of its simplicity - "there are only three rules," I insisted.
I started well. In the first round I split my 9 coins into three piles of three and each one succeeded. That, it transpired, was the high watermark of my game. Katy and Martin both overtook me on towers and then Katy persuaded Laura to remove one of Martin's two boats instead of one of her three, insisting that Martin was the one to attack.
.Katy's plan (if it was a plan) worked better than she could've imagined as she won lots of cash in the next race and built the fourth and fifth parts of her tower. After that, it was a bit of a victory parade until the end.
Katy 6
Martin 3
Laura 1
Andrew 1
With Tajuto still midgame, we played a quick Harvest. This is another game of ruining other players' chances and there seemed to be a little meta gaming hangover from Noli as Katy received more than her fair share of negatives.
Martin 140
Andrew 110
Laura 50
Katy 40
As Tajuto wound to a close, we finished off a quick one-hand-only game of Sea Salt and Paper with the extension (a few extra cards) “Extra Salt.” It was brief and I was poised to win until Martin stole one of my octopuses.
Martin 8
Laura 6
Katy 5
Andrew 4
Then Tajuto ended and a close finish – the final placings decided only on the final turn.
Adam 8
Ian 7
Joe 4
Then there was a brief reshuffling of chairs and groups before we reformed as Joe, Laura, Ian and I playing Ra (Luxury Ra, of course) while Katy, Martin and Adam turned their back on opulence and played the sparse, clip-art themed Muscat.
Lots of pointing in Muscat
I don’t know anything about Muscat except for something to do with turning elephants in burning sticks.
Adam 42
Katy 18
Martin 17
As for Ra, just like Noli, I started quite well. I collected lots of Nile tiles and then cleverly used my God to pick up a lone Flood tile so that they’d score. I was pleased with myself until loads of Flood tiles came out in the first epoch. I could’ve kept that God tile for something rarer, like a Civ tile.
Then, in rounds two and three, Floods all but vanished. My niles shrivelled up and died. Everyone else went for monuments. Ian hung on to his 13-tile for about two-thirds of the game. Ian ended the game alone on the auction track, although the round was almost over and he filled up the track with tiles. But only one Ra tile would end the round and we were begging him to stop. Which he did, and he scored ten points from just those tiles.
Turns out he should’ve kept going after all
Joe 40
Ian 36
Laura 31
Andrew 30
Joe maintains his vice-like grip on this game.
And then Me, Katy and Adam left. The rest stayed for what might have been a round of So Clover but who knows.
Thanks for the evening, everyone. See you next Tuesday.
We lost Andrew but gained Andy M, had no Adam T but Adam H stepped in as a late responder. The venue floated around before settling at mine, but the first half hour or so was mainly chat. Ian told a story about sleeping in mulch - or 'a ditch' as Katy liked to interpret it - and then he told it again to late arrivals Joe and Andy. Martin was due about 9pm, but after a diversion into whether conking out drunk is the same as going to sleep and another diversion on Venn diagrams, we finally played a game. It was Viva Pamplona!
Katy suggested that the orange safe spaces should actually be safe, as one pays to be there, and we thought Why not. So you can't be pushed while in an orange space, but neither can you collect courage points if the bull attacks (nor lose them if you're behind him, which had ramifications later). Good thematic sense! I regretted not bunching my runners together in my opening turn as no less than three others immediately took advantage, shoving me all over the place, like a rank amateur bullied by seasoned pros. We all fell behind the bull - but some of us hid safely in the safe spaces. Then we realised that we could keep a runner in a safe space all the way to the end of the game and not lose any more courage points - which we did; Katy, Adam and I lingering way back on the course like cowardly custards.
But Adam's rolling didn't favour him and he found himself forced to run, way way back behind the bull, who only paid out 2 or 3 times the entire race! Very few of us made it to the arena, and Andy cleaned up on his debut, shrugging off everyone teasing him about cheating.
Andy 39 Katy 35
Sam 25 Joe 17 Adam 9 Ian 5
Joe and Katy then played Sea Salt and Paper while they waited for Martin, whilst I attempted to explain Terra Nova to Adam and Andy. I'm not sure what happened in SSaP, I missed the end. I also handed guidance duties over to Ian when I had to go away on bedtime patrol upstairs.
For a reasonably simple game of build stuff to get in each other's way with a side order of tactical scoring, it does take a while to explain. Ian did a good job though, and we set off into the good hexagonal night, starting around the time Martin arrived and began setting up his latest Knizia offering, Aristocracy. I missed almost everything about this other the occasional expletive and Katy's happy air of satisfaction versus the boy's chagrin, but did manage to snap a photo:
At our end of the table Andy started well, but as we proceeded Ian's eye for scoring opportunities saw him streak ahead, establishing a solid lead. Terra Nova can be fruitful if you pay attention to the round-by-round bonuses, and try and time your actions on the board to them. Adam frustrated himself when he built a palace and a town earlier than was ideal, even though it catapulted him up the track: delaying would have been more productive in the long run.
Despite building the largest network (12 point bonus!) after connecting two towns, I was struggling to stay anywhere near Ian. In fact I was struggling to keep up with Andy -(bonus points for towns!) and Adam (-being Adam). But it was Ian's day: he scored a shedload of points in round five as well and wrapped things up convincingly, seemingly unaffected - maybe even blessed - by his night in the mulch.
Ian 74 Adam and Sam 59 each Andy 53
Aristocracy finished as well, with Katy even more convincing:
Katy 66
Martin 48
Joe 47
And Martin telling Joe he should design his own version of the game. I've no idea what it's about, although the cover suggests a psychopaths-with-delusions-of-grandeur kind of vibe. Not something I would ever accuse the players of, of course.
EDIT: This morning Martin had to remind me that he Joe and Katy also played Spots around this point as we finished Terra Nova! Martin won.
Ian took his leave triumphantly, whilst the rest of us debated what to finish with before settling on Wavelength. Memories are a little hazy now but I can vouch that at some point before/during the game, Joe revealed he had kissed Kylie Minogue "on the lips" (-because she's a kisser on greeting) having made some illustrations for her website back in the last century. "I've known you ten years, and this is the first time you mention this?" Martin cried. Joe confessed he'd been waiting for the right moment. There was also talk of foamy nipples and it was hard to tell what was the greatest emotion in the room - Joe's nostalgia, or his audience's astonishment.
But we had business to attend to, and that was arguing about how much a grain of sand looks like a person (not at all? a little bit? a lot?) This was Joe's clue and he and Katy, post-reveal, debated what more looks like a person between a grain of sand and 'air'. "Air can look like a person!" Joe insisted, waving his heads around in what I supposed was meant to suggest that air can look like a person. I regretted my clue of snooker for mental activity/physical activity, and changed to to darts after they had set the dial. If nothing else this should prove to everyone that Andy is not the only one who can cheat. I waved away protests for not other reason than I wanted to.
It didn't help much: we actually did rather badly overall, triggering no extra cards and only scoring ten points total. "You should have listened to me" Martin said, as the only person (other than me) who truly understands how physical darts can be. Lots of fun! Thanks everyone...
After two weeks away, I eagerly knocked on Laura’s front door for a dose of gaming goodness only to be told by Laura that there’d been a change of venue and, cursing my lax checking of emails, I set off again, this time to Sam’s. When I arrived, I found three gamers: the host Sam, Martin and Ian, playing Sea Salt and Paper. When I walked in, Martin suggested they end the game and call it void, but Sam was keen to continue. A brief look at the scores explained why: Sam was poised to win while Martin was a distant last.
So they continued. “You’re up Ian,” prompted Martin, giving this blog post it’s title. Sam called “stop” but then realised he was one point short of a win, so had to risk “Last chance” for that extra point. No one could match him, although Martin came very close, and Sam took the win by a deceptively wide margin.
Sam 35
Ian 26
Martin 15
Then we played Castello Methoni, a territory control game where you can win despite having very little territory at all. Selling your land (or, more accurately, watching another player annex your land) gets you money and money equals points.
Martin's grey tower marks the game's first domain
We tried out various tactics, not really sure what we were doing. Martin was the first to make a domain, which I commented was a grand name for what was basically just a market. I was pleased with my 6-tile hexagonal domain until Ian made an 8-tile one.
Martin 66
Ian 57
Andrew 42
Sam 32
By now we were sure Laura wasn’t joining us so we decided it was time to introduce Ian to Mille Fiori. He listened to Martin’s rules explanation and so did Sam who’d recently taught this game to his family and wanted to know if he’d got any rules wrong. For the most part, Sam sat in contented silence until he asked Martin to clarify a rule about scoring the shipping.
“Was that the one?” asked Martin after he’d explained. “Yes,” said Sam, “and I’d been doing so well.”
It was a typical game of Mille Fiori. I was doing well and challenging Martin for first, although with a little help: I played a card to move a ship when Martin pointed out that I could use it on the board, get an extra turn and score more points. Unfortunately, Ian had the exact same card so his plan was ruined. Sorry Ian.
Martin 209
Andrew 192
Sam 165
Ian 115
A tough introduction for Ian against three experienced players. Hopefully he’ll be back before too long.
It was coming to the end of the night for Ian and I and we ended with So Clover. My clover was pretty easy and I was confident of 6 points but I was cruelly undone by an evil rando. I’d written “Hilter” for “race/butcher” but the extra card had “Belgium” on it and people instantly paired “Hilter” with “Belgium/butcher” and to make things worse, the other word on the tile was a perfect fit for the adjacent clue.
Pity, really. And we’d done so well to get Sam’s clover right with Ian noticing at the end that “Fairy” went better with Sam’s clue of “Liquid” than “cup” did.
20 out of 24.
The Ian and I went home and Sam and Martin finished with a couple of two-player games. Sam won and Schnipp And Weg while Martin claimed victory at Spots.
Knowing that Adam T finishes work well before 7.30, I (Sam) told him he was welcome to arrive early, and after consuming his own tea at the Lazy Dog, he was treated to my family eating the last of theirs. Adam's presence may have played a part in the boys not arguing over who wipes the table too: good work, Mr T.
Martin joined us a little after seven, just as we were setting up the first game of the night: Akropolis!
It's a super-simple game, although not so simple that I couldn't get a rule wrong, as we discovered this morning. Martin may thus contest the results, but basically your cities score in different ways: residences like to be together, markets apart, temples surrounded etc. But each district only scores if you have matching plazas, who don't care where they go. Martin was indifferent to its charms; I rather like it myself for it's breezy play and weight of decisions. But liking it and being any good at it are two different things.
Adam: 131
Martin: 129
Sam: never mind
By the time we were totting up, Joe had joined us and, with Ian and Adam H hot on his heels - sadly we lost Andrew and Laura to 'fatigue' and 'pyjamas' - it was time for a six-player crack at Challengers, the fun deck-builder and possibly-less-fun card-flipper du jour.
Unbeknownst to me, Ian had been burnt on Sunday when his cards serially came out in non-combo-ing order, and having suffered a similar fate last Tuesday, he had my sympathy when history repeated and he took a battering over the first four rounds. I did better this time; enough in fact to cockily assume I was in the final, only to crestfallenly discover Joe had outscored me, at which point I hated Challengers again. Ian won his last two rounds, like Lazarus rising from a hardback chair, but Adam T was the man to beat, and he and Joe faced off over the final. With almost no power on my phone, I was like a disorganised journo intern, racing back and forth from charger to the table to try and record momentous events.
Adam wins!
Joe runner-up
Sam third on points, if that means anything
Adam H
Ian
Martin
Then we broke into threes. There was talk of Pan Am again, but with four of us keen to play, it somehow never reached the table. Martin was pushing for Longboards, or Bonerz as it has been somewhat immaturely renamed (see pics). Having coaxed Joe and Ian into Reiner's phallic surfing bonanza, the Adams and I were left to peruse the alcove and settled on Ahoy.
Last seen at the GNN Christmas shindig, Ahoy's mechanically-specific charms are how it interweaves two types of game into one: as Adam T and I battled (well, I hid) across the water for dominance, the Creeping Custard played a game of pick up and deliver: the aforementioned weaving is his deliveries increase the value of the territories we were fighting over, and he gets to wager each delivery on which of us he thinks will score that territory at the end of the game - getting bonus points if he's right.
Adam T immediately loaded cannons and, not long after that, recruited crew who made coming anywhere near him a high-risk manoeuvre. I basically kept my distance, using my deck of Plans to run interference when I could. For a couple of rounds we scored equally, but Adam's visible strength and bonus half-turn each round was swinging things his way. Between us, that is. We were so busy circling each other, like boxers in a pond, that we neglected to stop Adam H running away with the game. Meantime Bonerz had subsided, to coin a phrase, and Martin had triumphed. I'll leave it at that.
Martin 43 Ian 39 Joe 27
They were now playing Spots, but ten minutes in, still hadn't managed to claim a single dog. I think they tried a variant where the action cards keep changing, but found it made the pace a bit stodgy. I didn't actually see who won, in the end, but someone must have done because when Ahoy finished they were playing Sea Salt & Paper.
No such stodginess at our end of the table, however, as Ahoy wrapped up with Adam's smuggler easing to a win of non-sneaky margins:
Adam H 37 Adam T 25 Sam 20
The others graciously packed up Sea Salt & Paper (Joe was winning/won/delete as appropriate) so we could play So Clover as a six. Even for a game as marvellously bamboozling as So Clover, this felt like a high watermark of despair as almost everyone around the table complained that their combos were impossible (full transparency: my 'terrible' pairing was OCEAN/RAY and manta never occurred to me). Despite our misgivings, however, we did rather well. Martin's heehaw clue was nice, and I was quite pleased with Ahoy for ROOT/GATE. Joe's random card stumped us, as shirt/tail went rather well his office and surveillance clues, but despite these red herrings, it was overall a very respectable 30/36.
I would have been up for a nightcap of the meeple variety, but with the hour approaching eleven and the night air chilly, we called it there.
