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.

The Death of Brian

 I (Sam, our de facto blogger Andrew being a late drop-out) arrived at Joe's place a little later than usual to find just three gamers at the table: the host, Ian, and Martin. They were puzzling out hidden codes in Break the Code, a game that broke my mind when I played it. All I can remember at the time is thinking what the fuck do all these numbers mean just as Joe announced he'd cracked it. Martin and Ian had no such qualms, though, and whilst I munched through a sandwich they all won the game at the same time. 

What next? Martin began campaigning to play Brian Boru, the trick-taking game of Irish border control. Despite my emerald heritage, Joe's love of trick-taking and Ian's fascination with borders, nobody really bit. Both Joe and I said we'd be up for playing it again, but it wasn't high on our wishlists. 

"Yeah" Martin sighed. "That's the problem with games" 

He rattled the box seductively one last time, and then put it away. But for how long?

Instead we played Babylonia, reducing Martin's chances of victory from 100% to a more competitive 90 or so. Joe began well, harvesting point-scoring opportunities in a kind of guerrilla-esque approach. Martin and Ian schemed. I attempted to build a connection of tiles all the way across the map, and found my plans regularly harpooned by three dickheads who kept getting in my way.

Or possibly it's more correct to say I sucked big time. As Joe's momentum slackened a little mid-game, it became a fight between Martin and Ian, and Martin snuck his farmers into operation a fraction before Ian could, pushing his narrow lead into a more substantial one. 

Although Ian was scoring plenty for cities, it wasn't enough, and he ended the game before Martin could scalp any points for himself:

Martin 168

Ian 141

Joe 127

Sam 114

Next up was Set & Match: Doubles, as Martin and I took on Ian and Joe.

This was hilarious. The scoring is identical to real tennis, and the court is pretty much the same too. Where the game comes to life is in both the flicking, and the clever way momentum swings during rallies, pushing one side further towards the point if your 'shot' lands in a tricky-to-get-to place: the corners of the court; right by the net and so on. 

Joe and Ian kept getting the yips and hit multiple double-faults. Joe managed to serially flip the tennis ball disc over and send it rolling off court. I was more at home with this game (push something with your finger) than Babylonia (use your brain) and enjoying thwacking the 'ball' diagonally cross-court: Martin and I ran out winning three sets to love.

We then swapped Wimbledon for the Mariana, and crewed up for Mission: Deep Sea. My notes here say

1 Sam fucks up

2 twice

3 we succeed

which is probably as succinct a way of putting it as any. Computing all the possibilities in a round of The Crew is a struggle for me at the best of times, and I was starting to feel tired. I'm glad we managed to succeed in our mission, even though I've no idea what it was.

Joe had insidiously laid out Memoarrr! on the table and we were tempted. I'd forgotten how much fun it is - a simple memory game where whatever the player before you turned over, you must now reveal a card that matches either the animal, or the colour.

We all struggled at times, Martin most of all, and cursed the seeming absence of tortoises. And although Martin won the last two rounds, thanks to the skewy scoring system it didn't do him much good:

Sam 6
Joe 4
Martin 3
Ian 2

It was only just gone ten but I was shattered and had to head home. In my absence, they played Art Robbery (not sure who won) and after Ian left, Joe beat Martin at LLAMA. Until next time!

Lose on rails

After  a detour due to a closed road and then trouble parking, I arrived at 8.10pm at Sam’s. I was surprised to find only three people waiting for me. Had the others got bored and left? Nope, it was just a low turnout, due to the extended bank holiday/half term, I suppose.

They’d already played Isle of Cats, which Sam won, and on my arrival they sat me down and began a game of High Score, Knizia’s reworking of his free print-and-play game Decathlon.

I was the early leader, but soon fall away. Joe had a late revival but steady Sam took the gold.

Sam 15

Joe 11

Katy 9

Andrew 7

Then Mel arrived, pushing up the number of attendees to a giddy five, and after a while of rejecting possible games due to having to relearn rules, we settled on Luzon Rails since we’d all played it.

Katy started in fine Katy-style, bidding high on pink shares because they were pink. Mel bought shares in red and green (three in total) early on and then didn’t feel the need to buy any more since they seemed to be doing very well. Joe, Sam and I shared ownership of three firms between us in the expectation that the other players would boost their value, with mixed results.

By round four it was intense enough that Sam and Katy both stood up. Once upon a time that meant an increase in concentration, but this time it was due to health issues (leg and back respectively). Such is life.

Katy ended the game in even finer Katy-style, bidding seven on a share even though she was told it’d only earn her six. Mel’s early eye for a bargain sealed the game for her.

Mel 37

Andrew 31

Joe 19

Katy 17

Sam 16

After this, Katy stayed true to her promise to go home early and the remaining four of us played Cross Clues.

As the words were dealt out Joe misread one of the clues as “Shropshire” which lead to a brief period of trying to work out what definition might suit phrases like “Shropshire laptop” (a paving slab?) or a “Shropshire ankle” (no idea but sounds painful).

Once we got started. Mel’s clues were next level, for example “Victorian” for “Ankle/surprise”. We slipped up on Joe’s clue for “Poos” which we thought was “Brown/surprise” and were so delighted that we didn’t realise that it was plural, which should’ve lead us to “brown/group”.

Disappointed at having run out of time and still got several wrong, we quickly set up again, persuading Mel to stay for one more. This time we were in much better form, speeding through the clues and finishing with a comfortable 25 out of 25.

With that, Mel and I left Joe and Sam to finish of the night. Joe beat Sam 21-20 on Wordpress

And then Joe won at Set & Match, 2-1.

Thanks all, have a lovely long weekend. Enjoy the Queen and I’ll see you next week.