All Run Down by the Hillmann Express

The heat bore down like a big hot thing, so much so that Andrew was lost to us and Laura forgot to come and have fun, because she was having too much fun elsewhere. Keeping up slightly sweaty appearances at Martin's house were Adam H, Joe, Katy, Anja and myself. Anja was last to arrive so the rest of us played The Number, which despite the early hour conjured a number of insults, most notable of which was Adam getting called Dick Brain, who we decided sounded like a CIA operative. To be honest, with Adam it does feel like anything is possible. 

Despite ruminating on alleged mistakes he'd made, he still beat us all in a game that I find foggy to the point of breeze blocks. 

Adam 62

Katy 59

Martin 56

Sam 54

Joe 40

Then it was time for A game of selecting seven cards, speedily searching for synergies. I think this one genuinely takes longer to explain than it does to play, but that's not really a criticism as it was over in 90 seconds. I owe Martin apologies for more than once clinging on to cards as he attempted to take them. 

My dirty ways saw me victorious. 

Sam 18

Joe 15

Adam 10

Martin and Katy: 8 each

As I pondered inwardly how low I might stoop in gaming - especially against Martin (or Adam) - Anja arrived and we broke into two groups. Adam was gently cajoled into Mille Fiori by Joe and Anja as I inadvertently, but happily, signed up for Aristocracy thinking it was a six-player game. 

Andrew has explained the game on here before I think, but it bears repeating that the presentation slightly lets down an otherwise simple undertaking. On your turn you flip three tiles over, then choose one tile of any kind and harvest all matching kinds: this might be a literal harvest of resources, or trigger the placing of buildings, or evoke a kind of huffy harrumphing noise that all of us took turns at when we didn't flip what we wanted. "I'm swimming in fish!" Martin complained at one point. "I need to turn over two queens" I grumbled. 

Katy's pink buildings

Scoring is a bunch of overlapping objectives: sets of resources, sets of buildings both bunched together or widely dispersed, and connections made across the board. It reminded me of Sumatra, only the tile-flipping made it more fun. Martin was one tile away from winning when it ended - I was a little further back:

Katy 50

Martin 46

Sam 40

At the other end of the table it was Adam's turn to do a bit of harrumphing as things didn't go his way in Mille Fiori, and he expressed again his lack of enthusiasm for the game. Joe suggested he keep playing until he likes it.

Adam frowning

Joe's considerable record at Mille Fiori remains a thing, as the final count-up was agonising for Adam:

Joe 180
Anja 163
Adam 162

There was a quick bit of seat-shuffling and then Martin and Katy embarked on Mille Fiori with Anja, who was keen to play again. Adam, Joe and I did a pleasurable bit of game-discussing before Joe made the fatal error of suggesting Ticket to Ride and I the catastrophic mistake of agreeing. A strange, distant gleam came into Adam's eye...

We chose the Switzerland map which is best for three. The rules are the same except the usually-wild locomotives are no longer wild but only used for the (plentiful) tunnels; and as such you can pick up two of them instead of the standard one. I got off to a pitiful start when twice I tried to build a single section tunnel and found the roof caved in on me. 

Discard pile of shattered dreams

I distracted myself by taking photos and getting told by everyone that I always make them look terrible. I've no idea what they're talking about.

Just to show I can also take it, here's me as a chinny potato-head. See Adam scheming in the background? 

Adam didn't have time for such trifles as looking at a camera, as he was plotting a Ticket to Ride coup of such preposterous scale that, for Joe and I, it'll probably be our valedictory game, leaving us with not so much memories as PTSD. Things were looking ominous when he needed both hands to hold his cards, and then, like a carnivorous snake unravelling across a children's campsite, he built an enormous yellow train track from one side of the board to the other as Joe and I looked on in concern. 

moments earlier

The game didn't so much end as explode. Adam placed his last trains with a preternatural calm as Joe whitened. We had one last turn, and Adam already had a considerable lead thanks to his dastardly card-hoarding and thinking about things. I picked up routes, and it was a mistake, knocking back my score by a hefty chunk. I can't remember what Joe did. But he counted up all his routes and announced they were collectively worth minus one point. Adam lapped him.

Adam 146

Sam 93

Joe 43

Mille Fiori finished around the same time, I think, with Martin's incessant rewarding himself extra turns making the difference in the long run:

Martin 218

Katy 181

Anja 175

There was just time for So Clover to finish. We were surprised to find Anja had never actually played it and it was her debut game. As always, the act of playing opens with The Grumbling, wherein we all complain that our words are terrible.

Then we go off in wildly lateral directions before hopefully coming to a productive conceptual compromise. And after an uncertain start where the rest of us weren't quite in tune with Anja's clues, it was a more than decent attempt, scoring 30/36. Mainly though we got to tease Adam about taking ages over his clues. Does it make up for Ticket to Ride? 

Probably not. 

Steppin' Out

Anja, Steve and Louie were our genial hosts at Stepney Walk this week (-Lennon was tucked up in bed) and we assembled at the slightly later time of 8pm - or just after, in my case. I walked in to find everyone perusing Louie's Star Wars cross-section book. As fascinating as the inside of a AT-AT is though, there were games to be played. Louie's pumpkin clock was ticking so Joe gathered the hosts along with Adam H and Gareth to play Kakerlaken Poker, whilst Martin introduced Ian and I to Wibbell creator Bez's A Game about selecting seven cards, speedily searching for synergies. Once you know the title, you kind of know the game, except how you get them: each of us begin with a stack of seven cards and one in our hand. Simultaneously, we can take (one at a time) cards from a shared tableau of nine, but must replace the cards we take from the top one of our stack. As soon as anyone's stack runs out, they count down from seven and that's the end of the game: the cards score as it says in the title, synergising - or not - with each other to harvest points. 

My card-in-hand I started with rewarded me for having creatures with eyes, so that was my main focus, and fortunately there was always a card with at least one eye on out there. I raced to the end and Ian and Martin ran out of time: which means they were forced to take what was left of their unknown stack as their hand. 

Sam 23
Ian 15
Martin 13

The whole game took about two minutes, so we cracked into one of my UKGE purchases from last week, Alpha Beasts Attack. This is a co-op word game where you must attempt to use as many letters as you can each round, with limited communication. If you can't, each unused letter becomes a scar, and if you receive x number of scars you lose. Winning involves cashing in your defeated monsters (ie used letters) in sets to reveal scavenge cards, which might be helpful tools, or brains. X number of brains wins you the game. I forgot to take photos, but this was me learning the game at the weekend...

We finished triumphantly - after a very tricky penultimate round, and an injection of beerspill from excited poker players - around the same time as Kakerlaken ended, with Steve, to Louie's delight, the unfortunate loser. I think there were some insults exchanged, although I can't now recall them specifically. With a quick reshuffle, Gareth and Joe joined Martin and I to investigate Inside Job, whilst everyone else played 7 Wonders.

Inside Job is a trick-taker where, not unlike The Crew, players have missions to complete. They're easier here than in the The Crew, but unlike the space/sea co-operative fundertaking, here one player is the Insider, on a secret mission to undermine the actual missions of the other agents. 

Suspicious

Standard trick-taking rules apply - except to the Insider, who can lie and pretend that they "can't" follow suit and were forced to do something terribly unhelpful instead. Whomever wins a trick gets an Intel token. If the Insider gets five intel tokens, they instantly win. If the agents complete x number of missions, they win. If neither happen, there's some ill feeling and accusations to decide things. 

Poor Gareth had to play his debut game as the Insider, retaining rules, forging strategy and feigning innocence all at the same time, and we figured it out when he not unreasonably just tried to win as many tricks as he could as quickly as possible. We played a second game and eventually realised it was Gareth again. Then on a third attempt it was a little more hazy, but I think we all suspected Joe to the point of near-certainty. Suspicion, however, doesn't guarantee victory: Joe grabbed his fifth intel to take an Insider win. 

I'm not sure what happened in 7 Wonders except Adam was slightly forlorn at the end, and Ian quietly triumphant. Louie went to bed, possibly in disgust. 

Ian 58

Steve 53

Anja /Team Adam and Louie 50 each

The time was pushing toward ten and I had to leave relatively early to get Stan to school for a madcap overnight dash to France. So whilst Gareth departed - also bound for bed - and the others set up Mille Fiori, Ian, Adam and I played a slightly protracted game of So Clover, all of us pondering at length and muttering resentful aspersions at our word combos. At the other end of the table, it was slightly more boisterous...

But So Clover was fun in it's own thinky, uncompromising way. Adam suggested Ian and I play a two-hander whilst he struggled on with his clues, but we were happy doodling on our clovers.  

"Is that a dog?" Adam said, peering over at Ian's drawings.

"It's batman" said Ian.

As it turned out, Adam's time spent proved worthwhile when it was the only six we got (mine and Ian's clovers were 4s). I didn't take any pics here but I do remember his clue of Sensed for Silence/Bouquet. Not a high-fiving score, but a reasonable one. 

I had to rush off at this point, but I'm told Mille Fiori ended with some colossal scores!

Steve 265

Martin 229

Joe 215

Anja 196

Incredible stuff. Sorry I wasn't there to see the glassblown madness. Thanks all, especially our hosts, and see you next week!